We live in the flicker
by SirClaaus
Summary: Continuation of 'Life itself is will to power' (a continuation of 'Improvisation can take you a long way'), this fic follows a VI technician turned mercenary as he tries to deal with events in the past and helps with Commander Shepard's efforts to save humanity from the Collectors.
1. Chapter 1

**So this is the first chapter to the third part of this fanfic I am writing. The first part, called 'Improvisation can take you a long way' was rated T and followed the events of Mass Effect 1. The second part, called 'Life itself is will to power' touched on more adult topics and had a darker tone, so it was rated M. It was about the events bridging the gap between ME1 and ME2. This third part will cover ME2, and though it will keep its dark themes and M rating, it will be less dire and more upbeat. If you've already read the other two parts, then welcome back! Sorry for the wait, but I hope you enjoy this next part just as much or even more! If you haven't read the other two parts, then I strongly recommend you do, because otherwise things just won't make sense, I guess. I hope you enjoy them!**

 **Without further ado, here's Chapter 1!**

* * *

Nicolas woke to a clean, warm, empty bed. He felt the nausea caused by strong antibiotics attack his stomach and noticed a white tube labelled _Probiotics_ on the bedside table. He held the container to his lips, waiting for gravity to pull the thick blue syrup down. The dry taste of cherries and aspartame filled his mouth, making him gag for a second before he was able to swallow. He waited for the queasiness to wear out, smacking his lips. A display started humming to life, snapping him to attention as a blue holographic sphere appeared on the opposite side of the bed.

"Good day, Mr. Baker. The Commander asked me to answer any questions you might have once you awoke," a feminine voice came from the hologram. Its voice didn't seem to be composed from pre-recorded bits, like a normal VI, maybe it had a complex text-to-speech program.

Baker groaned and pressed his palms against his eyes. After a long stretch and a sigh, he gave the hologram a paused look from top to bottom, "What's your name?"

"Enhanced Defence Intelligence. EDI for short. I control the weapons systems and the cyberwarfare suite of the Normandy."

"You mean the _new_ Normandy. What time is it?" Nicolas asked as he got up, finding Cerberus fatigues folded on the floor. He put them on as EDI talked.

"It is 1100 hrs, SCT. We arrived half an hour ago at Purgatory and the commander has taken Operative Taylor and Vakarian to assist-"

"We're already in Purgatory?" Nicolas tripped on his pants as he put them on, getting up hastily, "Did I sleep the whole of yesterday?"

"No, you were experiencing episodes of PTSD-induced panic attacks and phantom pain, as Dr. Chakwas diagnosed, and you were administered sleeping medication to wait for the episodes to pass so you could authorize a stronger treatment once you were lucid. I would recommend going to the doctor as soon as possible."

Nicolas grunted as he went into the bathroom, finding a bag of utensils and a towel waiting for him. With an annoyed huff, he stripped and got into the shower.

"So what is the mission we are on? How did you bring the commander back?" he asked as the hot water washed over him. He noticed his wounds weren't stinging anymore and he looked down to see that healthy scabs had formed and the skin around them had its normal tanned tone. He saw himself in the shower's mirror and considered shaving until he saw a thick scar coming down from his lower lip. The permanent bruise on his temple trickled down underneath his hair to the beard at the corner of his jaw and he decided to hold off on shaving for a while.

EDI explained how entire human populations in remote colonies have been disappearing, and that the council has refused to send aid. She told of how Shepard was recently at one of the colonies that had fallen victim to one such incident and discovered that the Collectors were behind the disappearances. Currently, Dr. Solus was working on countermeasures to the Collectors' biological weapons and the Commander was gathering a team to aid her in stopping the kidnappings.

"How did you bring her back?" Nicolas asked as he shut off the shower.

 _They didn't, she's a clone._

He shook his head from side to side ignoring the comment, dried himself and put his fatigues on again before leaving the bathroom.

EDI followed him out of the captain's quarters into the corridor and the elevator as she talked about Project Lazarus. The human eyed his prosthetic hand which had started to tingle as the elevator went down to the crew quarters. The fingers moved how they were supposed to so it didn't seem like the nervous endings were damageded, but the tingling wasn't going away, and the whole limb twitched periodically, so maybe something was misaligned.

"… It was lucky that the helmet remained intact up to the point of impact on Alchera. Reconstruction of the brain would have set back the project by several months, if not years," EDI said as the doors opened to the crew deck.

Nicolas stopped before leaving the elevator and looked up at the speaker in the ceiling, "So it wasn't the Collectors who took her from Alchera."

"No… it was the Blue Suns… just a moment," EDI paused and Nicolas waited patiently, tapping a foot on the metal floor of the elevator, "Did you go to Alchera and encounter a team of Cerberus operatives?"

Nicolas shrugged his shoulders and walked towards the medbay, "I have no idea what you are talking about, EDI. Log me out."

…

Karin looked up from her datapad as the door to the medbay whooshed open, letting Nicolas in. The human looked much less deteriorated now than when he arrived at the Normandy and the day after, yet there were still signs of stress. He zoned out and stood still at the doorway, looking into the sterile white of the medbay. Chakwas give him a good look before considering breaking the silence. His prosthetic hand twitched every half second, so something was amiss there, especially considering he'd had a rather bad episode of phantom pain the previous day. His other hand was shaking, showing his distaste for medical equipment or herself, she wasn't sure yet. The bruise on his temple was certainly permanent and his dishevelled look was uncharacteristic of his days in the previous Normandy. She put her datapad and brought Nicolas out of his stupor, "Can I help you, Mr. Baker?"

His eyes came back into focus as he muttered a quick "Shut up," under his breath. Chakwas tilted her head slightly to the side with curiosity as the man walked over to the chair opposite her before making an inquiring gesture towards it. She nodded and he sat down. A few more seconds of silence ensued before he started with a half-hearted uh….

"I'm… I haven't been doing too good lately."

Karin smiled and raised her eyebrows in mock surprise, "Haven't you now? What would be the symptoms?"

"Well," Nicolas shifted uncomfortably, "My hand is tingling since I woke up," he raised his twitching prosthetic and Chakwas nodded, typing something on her datapad. Nicolas continued, "I've been having recurring nightmares for a couple of months. Not yesterday but before I got to the Normandy," Nicolas waited for Karin to nod and he went to the last part he wanted to get to, "It seems like my wounds are healing well so that isn't a problem anymore but there's one last thing," with this, Chakwas took her eyes off the datapad and their gazes met, "I… I've been talking to myself a lot lately."

"Talking to yourself? I would say that is normal behaviour in moderation, Mr. Baker," Chakwas prodded, downplaying Nicolas' predicament to get him to admit the problem to himself.

"Well not _me_ me. I know it's just me in here," he tapped a finger to his right temple, "but there's two me's. The one that's talking out loud and the one that talks to him."

"Hmmm…" the doctor tapped a finger to her chin before writing more into her notes, "have you been on drugs?"

Anger bubbled within Nicolas and he clenched his twitching fist, making the rubber pads on the inside of the hand squeak, "Well, apart from the ones in the tainted chocolates the commander gave me, I started taking Sand, but that was way after the voice started talking in my head."

Chakwas pursed her lips annoyed, "That was for your own good, Baker. Without the medication I administered, you would have suffered severe mental breakdowns even before we went to Vir-"

Nicolas stood up swiftly and smacked the chair he sat on across the medbay with his prosthetic arm, "Don't high road me, Chakwas! You know full well you and Shepard were in the wrong, medicating me without my knowledge."

"Surely after two years, you had enough time to find the reasoning behind it. Did it ever occur to you that the commander, whom you held in such high regard, actually did it to help you instead of just drugging you for the hell of it?" Chakwas shot back at Nicolas, her voice annoyed. He stood silently, looking down at his feet, considering what the doctor said. She changed the topic back to the voice he talked about, "You called the other you a voice just now. Does it sound like you at all?"

After a deep breath, Nicolas was ready to talk again, "No. Much more gravelly, like an old turian with destroyed vocal chords."

Chakwas hummed to herself as she read over her datapad. She scrolled up and down her notes as Nicolas walked silently over to the chair he'd flung across the room and set it in its place, sitting down as Karin began to talk again, "So your medical reports say that you were a kromby user before getting on the Normandy SR-1, correct?" Nicolas nodded and Chakwas continued, "Kromby is a drug that enhances the sensitivity of dopamine receptors in the brain. Pairing the sudden stop of your Kromby habits with all the stress that came from the mission against Saren, which you weren't prepared for in the slightest, made for a prime situation in which anxiety-related disorders could surface. I saw this and the commander did as well, so we decided to medicate you to stave off the effects of the stress that you were experiencing. After the mission was done, you decided to leave the Normandy but your treatment was incomplete and so we had to send your medication in a way that you wouldn't notice. Unfortunately, it seems the treatment was not finished by the time you left for Omega. Let me ask you a question, once you were in Omega, I assume you cut all communication with everyone from the Normandy, correct?"

Nicolas nodded, so absorbed by Chakwas that he didn't notice his hand had started to twitch more strongly. Karin continued, "It is around that time that the voice started talking to you, correct?"

He let air out from his nose in a supressed sigh, "It's hard to remember exactly when it started… I had just finished a task that Aria had given me. I murdered the sons of a man who'd been doing business with her."

"I assume it didn't say anything nice," Nicolas shook his head at this and the doctor continued, "From then on your emotions became erratic?"

"More like absent. I would get annoyed easily, but rarely sad or happy…" Nicolas looked at the floor as he muttered.

"Alongside that, you started taking Sand and I assume it hasn't stopped talking since then?"

Nicolas shook his head once more, "It's getting harder and harder to get it to shut up," he flinched and Chakwas stood up and walked towards him.

She stood there in front of Baker and slowly brought a hand up to rest on his shoulder, "It would seem that you are suffering from early stages of Schizophrenia. With our medical records, I can say that it was a combination of stress and drug abuse that triggered it. Red Sand and Kromby weren't meant for human use, and it has side-effects that are absent in other species even when they abuse them. You've been lucky that your symptoms have only included auditory hallucinations and a partial loss of emotional responsiveness, otherwise they would be harder to treat. With your authorization, I can prescribe you medication that will rid you of the symptoms, and eventually, bring you back to how you were before you got tangled up in the mission against Saren. It will take time, though, and you'll have to stay away from Sand, no matter how much you crave it."

Nicolas chuckled, "seems like that would be easy, since we're in the Normandy."

"I wouldn't be so sure. This isn't an alliance vessel, and the people Shepard is recruiting seem like they could have access to the drug. We can keep an eye on you, but it is also something that you have to commit to yourself."

A long moment of silence ensued before Nicolas broke the silence, "I'll take the meds… now can we get to fixing my twitchy arm? It's starting to get on my nerves."

"Quite literally, I would say. It seems like some nervous connectors have been misaligned. I can fix that in a couple of minutes," Chakwas smiled as she typed a command into her datapad, setting the medication manufacturer to work as she stood up and lead Nicolas to one of the medbay's beds.

…

Nicolas walked briskly towards the cockpit. He'd seen a flash of blue and red through one of the viewports on the starboard side. When he walked up to the unnaturally large window, he saw that Purgatory was almost bubbling with explosions. The damage had to be internal and extensive to cause so many hull breaches, and if anyone knew what was up, they'd be at the CIC deck. For the first time he noticed the difference in size when he reached the pilot's seat, all the way at the other side of the long neck of the ship. A pair of arms deftly moved over the Normandy's controls, making micro adjustments on the shield modules to repel flying shrapnel with minimal energy consumption.

A wave of recognition washed over Nicolas as the pilot spoke before he could peak over the edge of the chair, "Commander, it'll be roughly five minutes before Purgatory's hull integrity is too deteriorated to maintain a pressurized atmosphere. If you don't want our newest family member to pop in the vacuum, I suggest getting her on the ship."

Jane's voice came through the radio, making Nicolas hesitate, "Well, we have to find her first, Joker! Give me a minute, I see her heading for you guys. Lock the blast doors!"

"What the hell is going on?" Nicolas put his right hand on the backrest, surprised by the leather cover that crackled under his grasp.

"We're retrieving some biotic genius or something but she wants to commit suicide, apparently," Joker answered, perplexed at his own answer. He took his cap off to scratch his head before scrambling for a couple of buttons, moving the shield systems to protect the blastdoor right before a loud flanging _whoomp_ came from the board side of the hull.

"Was that our biotic genius? Does she know we're her only way out?" Nicolas looked at the airlock, then back at Joker.

The pilot was about to answer when Jane's voice came through the Normandy's speakers, "Alright Joker, open the door."

"But she just tried to rip us a new one!" Joker replied, flabbergasted.

"Yeah, she won't do it again. Open up!"

With a huff, the pilot disengaged the lock on the blast door and the airlock started the decontamination process. The doors opened, admitting a skinny woman in her late-twenties. The parts of her body that weren't precariously covered in belts were covered in tattoos, and her head was clean shaven. With an expression that could freeze gasoline, she stormed towards the elevator at the end of the CIC. Garrus, Shepard and Jacob followed but they turned towards the cockpit instead. Nicolas stood beside Joker with crossed arms, "Shouldn't someone go with her to make sure she isn't too cranky?"

Garrus chuckled half-heartedly, "We sent her to her room in the engineering deck. She should be quiet for now. How're you feeling today, broomhead?"

"Like I slept for two days. Chakwas says I'll be fit for the ground team next week though."

Garrus chuckled, "I got a rocket to the face and I only got a day and a half of sick leave but you look just fine!"

"Well, I had a sore throat, whatcha gonna do…" Nicolas shrugged and the turian laughed.

"Cerberus' human favouritism is showing. Come with me, broomhead, I need to calibrate the main guns. We could do with some catching up."

Baker was taken aback by the warm atmosphere but he didn't protest as he walked with Garrus towards the elevator that had just dinged as it returned to the CIC.

Jacob excused himself and left for the armoury, leaving Jane at the cockpit with Joker. The pilot swivelled around on his chair as the Normandy entered FTL, heading for the Serpent Nebula, "Baker looks a lot better than yesterday."

"Yes…"

The pilot grunted as he got up and hobbled over to the commander, eyeing her, "Commander, if there's something you have to say to him, you really should do it before he goes with you on the ground team. I shouldn't be the one to tell you that unspoken beef isn't good in the battlefield."

"We don't have _beef,_ Joker," Jane snapped, more annoyed than she wanted to be.

"Well, whatever it is you have, even I can see it, and I was looking at the controls just now!" with that, the pilot hobbled back to his chair and swivelled back around to face the front. Shepard turned around as well, taking a deep breath to relax herself as she stared out to the light show of FTL travel.

…

"…And now Hal is helping me find that traitor," Garrus sighed as Nicolas sat on his cot inside the main battery. Much like Tali did in the SR-1, the turian looked for the noisiest part of the ship to sleep soundly. The alien told of the events that led up to Sidonis' betrayal while running firing simulations on the Battery's terminal, looking up every once in a while, to make sure the human was keeping up with all the actors in the story.

"Helping you how?" the human asked, shuffling around on top of the taught sheet of fabric. It was strange to hear Hal chip in to the conversation from the room's speakers instead of his translator, as he used to do. It made it feel like he was more of an individual.

"From his days in C-sec, Garrus made a large network of informants. They've all been told to look out for Sidonis, but I also look into their messages from time to time. You know how people are a bit secretive sometimes," Hal's voice filled the room. As soon as the human and the turian had entered the battery, the door locked behind them and the AI turned off all surveillance equipment within the room. He had been hiding from Cerberus and EDI, waiting for the right time to make his existence known.

"Let's hope he shows up sooner than Saleon did," Nicolas shook his head, his mind going back to the body bags he had seen at Archangel's hideout. His mind wandered further back to his escape from Afterlife and he frowned, "Hal…"

"Yes, Nicolas?" the AI asked as Garrus looked up from the holo-display.

"When I escaped from Aria's room I headed for Korvos' store but I got lost on the way. At one point I started feeling sleepy, and I decided to take a nap. I was woken up by you… or at least I think it was you, since you'd left around six months earlier…" Nicolas chewed on his lip.

"Were you going to ask a question?" Hal prodded, expectant.

"Well, when Korvos was treating me, I had burn marks on my chest, and I think I have a few cracked ribs. Judging by my condition at the time, it wouldn't be too crazy to say I died instead of actually taking a nap, but I doubt my suit had a defibrillator, and even then, I would have needed CPR."

"I'm still waiting for a question."

"Goddamnit, Hal, don't play coy with me! There's not a soul in Omega that would have tried to resuscitate a dead human, and now I'm certain it was you in my translator when I woke up! _What the hell_ did you do?"

Garrus looked from the ceiling to the human and then back at the ceiling, waiting for the AI to break the short silence that ensued.

An audible sigh came from the speakers, both of the organics later wondered why Hal did that, "The suit you bought from Korvos for that first mission in which you were unofficially working for Aria had a special medical suite. It would allow the omnigel supply to be linked with the medigel so bigger wounds could be treated remotely without having to remove the suit by shaping the omnigel with electromagnetic signals and hardening it with chemicals held within the medigel. Since you made a habit of sleeping in it, and I knew that eventually I would have to leave you, I had to make sure I'd have a way to take care of you if the worst should happen. While you slept, I would use the omnigel combined with the anaesthetic in the medigel to drill through your ribs, filling them with an omnigel structure that could contract to do CPR and discharge like a defibrillator. I made a sensor that would notify me when you were in a critical state, and that's why I came back that day."

Nicolas touched his chest, noticing for the first time the flat and edgy surfaces of the omnigel jutting out at certain points of his ribcage. It was strange to know that so many things within him were artificial, but he felt thankful for Hal's thoughtfulness, "Why didn't you stay after you brought me back?"

"Garrus needed my help, and I can't be everywhere at once. I knew you could take care of yourself after the little boost I gave you."

Both organics looked up at the ceiling now, a question lingering in the red-lit room.

"I _can_ be everywhere at once, technically, but I don't want to."

"Why is that?" Garrus asked.

A moment of silence came and went, "It's hard to explain, but I have a feeling I experience consciousness like you do. I am aware of my surroundings and myself, so if I make a copy of myself, then which one is me? Which one will my conscious self, me, me, _me,_ continue being? What happens if we merge back, or if my copy suddenly feels that there can only _be_ one, and that merging isn't an option? I don't know the answer to these questions, and I don't feel like finding out. There can only be one Hal, and that's that."

…

Jane sipped on her hot water with orange peels as the elevator doors opened at the top level of the Normandy. The door to her quarters whooshed open, letting Nicolas out, who was carrying a standard issue Cerberus duffel bag that looked quite heavy. The commander arched an eyebrow, masking the small tingle of sadness that his leaving gave her, "What are you carrying, bricks, or are you too out of shape?"

A small, tired chuckle came from Baker, "It's my armour and weapons, and a few hundred kilos of rations that I've forgotten to eat. Also, everything that isn't made of metal aches."

"You haven't considered taking a rep pill? I think Garrus has those by the kilo," Shepard tried to smile.

"Chakwas said If I take anything more than what she has given me, my liver will spontaneously combust," Nicolas grunted and put the duffel bag down, seeing he wasn't going to move until he was done talking, "I think I'll sleep at the crew quarters tonight, Jane."

"That's fine, I just wanted to talk before you left," she walked up to her door and walked in. Jane noticed Nicolas glancing at his bag, then the elevator, "You can leave your bag here in the hall, no one will come to steal it."

Baker shook his head good-naturedly, "I forgot the Normandy was civilized."

The empty aquarium gave the whole room a cold blue glow and the very faint humming of FTL filled the air. It felt as if even the humming receded as the two entered, making the captain's quarters turn from cold but lively to eerie, its roominess almost cavernous in its contrast with the rest of the ship. Shepard led the two to the sofa in front of the bed and sat down. She pursed her lips, suddenly forgetting how she wanted to begin talking. Nicolas looked at her, noticing how she avoided his gaze, instead choosing to inspect the roof. He decided to start.

"It was a really bad day when I was told the Normandy was shot down. I went to see Anderson, hoping my involvement in the mission against Saren would help me get the location of your crash. The son of a bitch didn't want to tell me, and they ended up arresting me. I was lucky Garrus got me out, but I knew I couldn't be in the Citadel anymore and I just sit idle doing nothing knowing your body was somewhere in the Galaxy without a proper burial. I left that same day for Omega."

Shepard frowned, not understanding, "Why Omega?"

"When I asked where your ship was, Anderson was careless enough to mention you crashed in the Terminus. I knew that if information of your whereabouts would start circulating, it would be there. By chance, I ended up working under Aria, and I knew that if I stayed in a good standing with her, I'd eventually be able to get a hold of your whereabouts. When I finally did convince Aria to find out where you were, I was stupid enough to actually expect to find you. I ran into Cerberus at Alchera but they told me the Collectors had taken your body," Nicolas stopped to take a breath and he got up to get a glass of water in the bathroom. Shepard waited, thinking back to a message she'd received from the Illusive Man earlier containing all the info he'd found on Nicolas during his time in Omega.

He returned and sat down wordlessly before continuing, "It took me a month to get back to Omega. Maybe Chakwas hasn't told you about it yet, but my mental condition was at its worst at that point, and I resorted to Red Sand to cope with everything that was going on. I worked for Aria the rest of the time I was in Omega, right until I found out she was orchestrating the attack on Garrus. It took her a couple of hours to find out I'd blown the whistle and warned him, and she almost killed me for it. I barely escaped and, well… now I'm here."

Jane inspected Nicolas' face, looking for a hint of pain behind the blank expression that he'd pasted on. She knew something had happened between Baker and Aria, and a very guilt-ridden hope bubbled up in her mind. She wondered whether the asari had hurt him, and hoped she did, so he wouldn't want to go back to her, "Something happened between you and Aria?"

"You could say so… she fancied me, and I wanted free Sand. Funny it all meant nothing to her when she found out I helped Garrus," Nicolas looked up from his feet to see the edges of Jane's mouth curling down and her eyes glassy. He remembered Aria's toxic rhetoric, _she drugged you,_ but he dragged his thoughts to Chakwas' scolding in the medbay. He put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly, "What's wrong?"

"I'm fine, it's just a bit jarring, everything you're telling me. One thing is reading what the Illusive Man found out and another is hearing it from you," Jane's voice cracked a bit but she regained control over it. She gave him a tired smile before her eyes scanned his face, a touch of worry pulling her eyebrows down, "Your scars, your arm… what happened?"

"Sloppy jobs, mostly. Got a bit cocky when Hal left, I thought I'd be able to tackle things just fine on my own," he chuckled, "I was wrong, obviously."

"What about your jaw, and the bruise on your head?"

Nicolas chuckled, "We've got pretty much the same amount of scars, I don't know why you're worried!"

Jane frowned, "It was Aria, wasn't it?"

There was a small pause as Nicolas smiled defeated, not wanting to admit the obvious. His eyes drifted to the empty fish tank, "let's talk about that another time, alright?"

Shepard pursed her lips, getting the answer she needed. She took a short breath before talking again, "I wanted to say I'm sorry for medicating you behind your back. I know it's been years, but for what it's worth, know that it was for your safety. I somehow knew the dangers wouldn't stop with Saren, but no one was going to believe me," her eyes moved back and forth as if she were reading invisible thoughts written in the air in front of her, "It's so frustrating and disorienting to realize that even though for me it has felt like days, the rest of the world, _you_ , have been moving on for two years. My brain is trying to constantly catch up with everything, the collectors, the way the _goddamn_ council is sweeping it all under the rug, Cerberus piecing me back together. I'm sleepy and tired all the time and I feel I can't keep up with what I used to be. I didn't ask for this. If I'd known this would be what I'd come back to from death," she sniffled, the collectedness in her face cracked, "I don't know if I'd wanted to come back."

From his side of the sofa, Nicolas stretched his arm and squeezed her shoulder, then the back of her neck, "Don't say that, Jane, you'll be back to 100% soon, I'm sure. You talk like everything that has happened is your responsibility but it's not your fault. We're all happy you're back."

Jane, who'd been hiding her face in her hands as Nicolas talked, shot him a venomous look, her pupils faintly glowing red, "Then stop acting like you're not."

"I needed to get my head straight, I'm sorry Jane. That is why I can't be here. I've been out of balance for a long time, and I can't get back on track in a couple of hours," he looked at the door, then back at her. He gave her a warm last squeeze before letting go, "I should go. The more sleep I get, the quicker I can be part of the ground team."

"Yeah, sleep well."

Her sudden coldness surprised Baker, but he nodded silently and left the room.

…

It was 0100 SCT and Joker sat at his chair with a u-shaped pillow around his neck. His head lolled to the side, supported by the soft fabric as EDI went through the day's surveillance data pool, compiling a report for the Illusive man. The elevator went up to the captain's quarters, then back to the CIC. Jane emerged in her Cerberus fatigues, walking towards the cockpit at a determined pace. Joker heard her footsteps approaching and sat up straight, wiping the drool off his mouth with the back of his hand.

"You're up late, commander," he said, swivelling around on his chair, "We should be arriving at the main Crescent Relay in a couple of hours. From there it'll be one more jump and we'll be at the Citadel."

"I was wondering if we could do a little detour, Jeff. I need to see something in the Amada system," her face was unreadable, her features alert and awake but no visible emotion behind them.

The name rang an eerie bell in Joker's mind before he properly remembered the system where the first Normandy was attacked. He nodded, "We can be there in two and a half hours, commander," he swivelled back around and changed the course of the ship in his console, "I'll let you know when we arrive."

Jane nodded and walked back to her quarters as Joker settled into a more comfortable position to go to sleep.

…

The Kodiak struggled against the strong gusts of cold wind as Joker piloted the shuttle remotely. Shepard sealed her helmet on and draped a thermal poncho over her armour, fastening the ends on her wrists and tightening the waist to keep the winds from blowing it off. The shuttle landed, bouncing a bit as the mass effect core deactivated. Jeff's voice came through the intercom, "Outside temperature is at -50°C, commander. I'll let you know if anything comes up."

"Thanks, Joker. I won't be long," with this, Jane cut off the connection and opened the hatch.

Ammonia rained into the shuttle, boiling on the warm floor and Shepard's armour as she walked out into the snowy wasteland. The wind whistled around the grooves of her helmet, drowning out any sound barring the cracking of snow under her boots. She looked back at the Kodiak as the blast door closed and she was left alone in the ground zero of her death.

The remains of the SR-1 were not far off. There were two structural beams jutting out of a hill of snow, hiding behind a thick mist of snow down a small path between two cliffs of rock and ice. She walked towards the wreckage, expecting the wind to blow on her harder, but her cybernetic implants made walking eerily easy. She felt like a ghost, impervious to the real world as the snowy cliffs towered around her and the sound of the wind faded into silence, the two structural beams ever-present at the far end of her field of vision.

The inductive systems of Shepard's suit detected the presence of the Mako and a few damaged sections of the Normandy under the snow. Waypoints were generated on her HUD, and she approached the white snow hill that trapped the Mako underneath. Plunging her hands into the white powder, she started to dig.

…

Nicolas yawned as he walked up the neck of the Normandy to the cockpit. He checked his omnitool drowsily, then he did it once more because he forgot to actually check the time: 0500 standard. His eye was caught by a painfully familiar sight in the distance, outside the front viewports. The icy planet of Alchera cast a white sterile glow on everything in front of it. The contrast with the usual orange lighting and darkness of the cockpit gave it a frozen and barren look, like the surface of Luna.

"Why are we here, Joker?" Nicolas asked, swallowing against the sudden dryness of his throat.

Silently, Joker pointed at a display in front of him. The aerogel display showed an optical feed, zoomed in thousands of times to show the silhouette of what could only be the Normandy's Kodiak.

"The commander wanted to make a pit stop before going to the Citadel," Joker muttered, a solemn look on his face. He turned to Nicolas with pursed lips, "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you where the Normandy crashed."

With tired eyes, Baker inspected the planet in silence before answering, "There's nothing you could've done. It was classified information. Anyways, she's back now."

Jeff could only nod as the two looked at the white orb in the viewport. Nicolas patted a hand on the shoulder of Joker's seat before leaving for the Crew level again.

…

Her heart raced as the cold of the snow seeped through the seams of her gloves but she couldn't stop digging. A finger tapped against a hard metallic surface that could only be the open back hatch. Jane fanned her hand out, clearing more snow until the whole back of the Mako was exposed to the winds once more. Her eyes sagged, defeated for a moment, looking at the entrance that must've been left open for at least a year. Snow covered the whole entrance but she continued digging without letting the pace up. Before long, she ran into a thin ice wall, which gave into a bubble of cold air that had been trapped within the hull. Warily, she walked into the claustrophobic silence of the Mako. A survival kit lay there open, missing the thermal blanket. Memories of Noveria flooded into her mind. The Rachni Queen, the way Ashley treated Wrex, and how Garrus got hit with Rachni acid. She shook her head and looked around quickly before finding the port for the black box.

Cold circuitry came to life as a new source of energy was plugged into the long forgotten ports of the Mako's internal computer. A command was issued and all the power was directed towards copying the contents of the black box into Jane's omnitool.

She sat down on a row of seats and opened the copied files. Jane scrolled down the list, looking for one particular date from a couple of years ago. The holographic display of her omnitool went transparent. Frowning, Shepard tapped it but the video feed was playing normally. She waited another second before a piece of debris came into the camera's view. Soon, more pieces of debris appeared in the screen and a clanking noise came from the omnitool, as the video started to spin. A dull hum crackled through the speakers, signalling the activation of emergency recording procedures. At this point the Mako had activated mass effect stabilization and the 360° cameras started recording.

Jane got up and moved her omnitool around in front of her, the gyroscopes in the wristband helping the display act as a window into what the Mako was seeing that day. Above, she could see the exploding wreckage of the Normandy being hit by the last yellow beam of destruction the Collectors had shot. With a gasp, she saw the escape pod Joker left the SR1 in rocket off towards the darkness of space. A shower of dark debris and red hot sparks shot past the Mako's camera as the Normandy drifted off a little before blowing up in a terrifying cloud of blue and yellow fire. A glint caught Jane's eye, which she immediately followed with the omnitool, zooming into the video to get a better look and confirm her fears.

She gagged.

In the holodisplay, dark against the whiteness of Alchera, was her silhouette. Her arms desperately clutching at her helmet before going limp.

…

The Normandy docked in the Citadel at midday. Shepard had been gone for no more than half an hour with Miranda and Mordin before she came back with a plus one and the ship was approaching the Serpent Nebula's Secondary Relay. A few hours later, Jane stood behind Joker's chair dressed for Hock's gala.

"Say, commander, where is this Kasumi that you're going on the mission with? I thought she would've joined in to help retrieve the black box."

"I'm right here, Mr. Moreau," the master thief materialized right beside the pilot, making him gasp loudly.

"Crap! My ribs!" he protested.

The thief chuckled before backing away to stand beside Shepard, "I'll have to lose the habit of cloaking myself around this one. It is called a grey-box, by the way."

Jane shook her head good-naturedly. Bekenstein came into view as the Normandy slowed down to non-relativistic speeds and the two walked together to the cargo bay.

One level lower, in the crew deck, Garrus sat on a sofa. With his legs kicked up on the edge of the cushion, he clacked his mandibles absentmindedly against the sides of his jaw as the Normandy rotated, letting Bekenstein slowly roll into view of the starboard lounge. The door to the room whooshed open, and Nicolas walked in with two bags of snacks, each of a chirality. As he sat down, the turian activated a command on his omnitool and a sheet of aerogel dropped from the ceiling, covering the viewport completely. The screen hummed to life before going silent and a camera feed coming from Jane appeared.

"Ready for the latest Blasto flick?" Garrus asked between muffled crunches as he shovelled a handful of turian chips into his mouth.

"You know it, Big Bird."

…

"That greasy fucker must have DNA all over the house! Why go to his _room_ to find some?" Nicolas swallowed his popcorn uncomfortably.

"It would kind of look suspicious if Shepard were just scanning random things at a party, and there's also less probabilities of getting a contaminated sample," Garrus lectured the human, wagging a finger in the air.

"Alright, alright, Mr. C-Sec-man. Can you tell me why she needs like 4 different samples?"

"Well, a person with that much money must get around, so it's still important to make sure that the DNA is actually his, even if it's in his room."

Of all the people in the Normandy, Joker hobbled into the starboard lounge. The two turned around to look with blank faces at the human, who'd brought a bowl of potato chips with him. He sat down with a long huff and slowly settled into a comfortable position between Garrus and Nicolas, then he turned to look at them, one second each.

"I saw you guys were watching the vid feed," he said nonchalantly with a shrug.

The turian looked over the pilot at Baker, then at Jeff, "It's just the first time I see you outside the cockpit."

"Don't be ridiculous, we met at the funeral," Joker waved an arm dismissively. He then took a chip and chewed hastily before taking the next.

Kasumi's voice came through the room's speakers, "Now we just have to get a voice sample from Hock and disable the vault's kinetic barriers. Maybe you should go talk to him, it seems like he's done making that other group bored out of their minds."

The three chuckled as they switched over to Kasumi's video feed. The Master Thief had climbed onto the railing of the second floor to overlook the main hall. Unnoticed due to the cloaking systems in her light armour, she shimmied to a better vantage point, where her feed clearly showed Jane approaching Donovan Hock with a deliberate gait. The man saw her coming immediately, and a creepy smile formed on his lips. He raised a hand slightly to take Shepard's before bowing slightly to kiss her hand, "Alison Gunn, it is a pleasure to have you here. That scene at the door hasn't soured your evening, I hope."

The starboard observation deck exploded with laughter, "Alison Gunn!"

"What kind of Gas Bag kisses a hand?!"

"What's that shit on his face? Do you humans do that on purpose?"

Joker and Baker stopped laughing for a moment to give a perplexed look at the turian before it dawned on them, "You mean the beard? Yeah he probably payed someone a hefty amount to leave it like that."

They listened in to Shepard's Gunn character, she sounded oddly similar to Aria with her seductive tone, and Hock couldn't have been more enticed. He spoke about the importance of his trade, how cheap weapons upkeep the Galaxy-wide economy and peace. Throughout his monologue, other guests turned around to listen, and soon the whole party was all ears.

With arms outstretched, Hock took a step back to address everyone, "May there always be a market for the things we do."

Joker frowned, "Isn't he just an arms dealer? I mean, yeah, it's illegal but he's not on slave trading or organ harvesting or things like that."

Garrus smirked, "Yeah, on a galactic level, he _is_ small fry. Didn't you notice how there's only humans at the party?"

Kasumi's voice came through the speakers again, "I think he's talked plenty to sample his voice and make our ears bleed. Now all that's left is to deactivate the vault's kinetic barriers and get in!"

The camera feed followed Shepard closely as they walked past the entrance to the vault to an empty lounge. At the far end was a fireplace with a statue that acted as the deactivating switch. Nicolas shot a hand towards the screen, "Wouldn't it have been safer to have like a password protected switch?"

"Stop trying to find the fifth foot on the Varren, Nicolas! The statue is inconspicuous!" Garrus bent forward to address the human, chips flying out of his mouth as he exclaimed.

"Oh yeah, like two giant statues of chess pieces in a bookshelf wouldn't attract attention. I bet the guy can't read _or_ play chess," Nicolas waved his hand more vigorously at the screen.

Joker snickered, "You're salty because the guy kissed Shepard's hand."

"Nah, Hock is annoying enough as it is."

The pilot chuckled a bit but became silent when the statue of Saren came into view. The three watched silently as the vault was opened and Kasumi entered, followed by a fully armoured Jane. The inside was cavernous, almost like a cathedral in pre-FTL times. Along its length were display cases with various antiquities, statues and other objects of value. Kasumi's video feed went from case to case, until it turned around to face the far end of the vault.

"Is that the Statue of Liberty?" both Nicolas and Joker asked in unison, astounded.

"Never heard of it," Garrus said with an unimpressed face.

The two humans faced the alien, but chose not to say anything as Kasumi's feed focused on the object they were meant to retrieve: the grey-box.

…

Nicolas had jumped off the couch and ran for the mess hall to get more snacks as an YMIR mech blew up on screen. The commander was on her way to the extraction point so Garrus and Joker left the room as well, letting the vid play. The turian pressed the button to the cargo deck, then the one for the CIC. The doors shut quickly and the elevator's descent started. Joker sighed and Garrus cracked a small smile.

"The commander certainly hasn't lost her skills over the years."

"And she's been keeping her cool as well. Weird how having been dead doesn't show that much," Joker adjusted his cap before looking at the turian, "Nicolas looks better than when we picked him up as well. Damn, he was a mess."

"Why isn't anybody mentioning that I survived a rocket to the face?" Garrus shook his arms above his head, as if asking the spirits before the elevator doors opened. He walked out, turning back to face Joker as the doors closed again, "They've both still got to deal with a hell of a lot of baggage, though."

…

"How many mechs does this guy have?" Jane exclaimed as a rocket flew over her cover to land a few meters away. The blast disabled her shields and she grunted as the shockwave dazed her. Before the mech could lay out more suppressive fire, its weapon's own eezo cores warped themselves and the guns were rendered useless. Kasumi materialized on the mech's shoulders and overheated her hand cannon on its neck. When the head was hanging by wires, she pointed her gun into the exposed circuitry and cycled the thermal clip before shooting again. She then jumped towards the cover Shepard was hiding behind, landing just in time to shield herself from the shrapnel the exploding mech blasted in all directions.

"I think that's the last one in this place, or at least Hock has nowhere else to hide another one," Kasumi told Shepard as the two got up to find a way out.

…

A few guards stood outside Hock's mansion. "Do you think the mechs got the fuckers? Hock sent pretty much half of us into the vault."

"I sure as hell hope so, wouldn't want to try shooting at someone who got sent three mechs because nobody else could get them."

The conversation was cut short as the door to the vault behind them blew open, the two metallic panels flying towards them and flinging them off the loading area outside the mansion. Kasumi walked out with her submachine gun raised before turning around to frown at Shepard. The commander shrugged, "What? You were taking too long hacking the door open."

The Master Thief was about to respond but her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a gunship approaching. ATLAS mechs started marching towards them, accompanied by Eclipse mercenaries as the roar of Hock's gunship's miniguns filled the air. Kasumi engaged her cloak immediately as Shepard blind-fired over her cover. She activated her omnitool to see where she was shooting as she crawled along the concrete walls standing between herself and the endless gunfire, to avoid staying behind cover that was far too deteriorated. Atlas mechs fell one by one, falling victim to Shepard's biotics or Kasumi's surprise attacks.

"Shepard, help me clear a path to the gunship, I can disable its shields permanently!"

Not needing to hear it twice, Shepard pulled the grenade launcher off her back and took aim at the group of mercs standing between her and Hock as bullets ate at her shields. She pulled the trigger as her shields failed and a chip of metal touched her shoulder plate, blowing half of it apart. She was back in cover before the grenade was even able to hit its mark. The smoke and dust the grenade's blast had lifted cleared as Kasumi's invisible figure sprinted through it. The thief's legs whirred almost imperceptibly as synthetic muscles helped her leap ten metres into the air, right on top of the ship. She looked into the cockpit to see the hate in Hock's eyes before the shield systems were overloaded and he spun to shake Kasumi off. Her grip on the canopy was strong but her body was inevitably pulled to the side.

…

Two kilometres away, Garrus opened the blast door of the Kodiak and extended his sniper rifle, having just loaded a Tungsten-Osmium cube into it. The gun whirred as the mechanism shaved off a large piece of the cube to accelerate and the turian took aim. He could clearly see the gunship as Kasumi jumped on it and the ship spun to the side, trying to make her lose her footing. I trying to drop her, Hock had just aligned himself perfectly for Garrus to take a shot. Letting out air through his nostrils, he pulled the trigger and the recoil made him step back, out of breath. The gun's thermal clip was expelled and the system's protested after having fired in an anti-vehicle configuration.

Kasumi raised her eyebrows seeing the cockpit's inside coated in red and the fist sized hole in the canopy. She jumped off onto the platform as the gunship swerved and fell to the ground far below it. Soon a Cerberus Kodiak arrived and the two women jumped in, heading back for the Normandy.

* * *

 **Whew, so that was long! The next chapters will be shorter, I think! Hope you enjoyed it!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chaaaapter 2! Enjoy!**

 **Everything in this fanfic is owned by Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

The lights turned off in the Comm room as the quantum entanglement call pinged the paired particle, untraceable and unobstructed. A hologram appeared in the far darkness of the room, rendering first the grey hair, then the blue glowing eyes and slowly the rest of the body of the Illusive man as he lazily took a puff from a cigarette. Jane crossed her arms with contempt as the man blew smoke and smiled.

"I see the party on Bekenstein proved to be entertaining. We'll have a better market share when we take the submachineguns you found apart, the modifications made on the "President Killers" would benefit our weapons department."

"We found more than a couple of guns," Shepard sneered.

"I would agree if you hadn't suggested that Miss Goto destroy the grey box. Now that information can't be used. At least she seems to see more reason to follow you into the Omega 4," the hologram took another puff and grabbed a datapad that materialized into the hologram a second later, "I have forwarded another Dossier to you, it came across my desk and it seems like he could be of use."

"Are you planning on telling me something more or should I just hang up now?" Jane raised her eyebrows, trying to distract herself from the impulse she had to take a fruitless shot at the hologram.

"Dr. Okeer, a krogan. He's working with the Blue Suns, trying to create a cloned krogan army. It seems like he has somehow recovered research from Saren's facility on Virmire. It also seems," the man paused for a fraction of a second, "like he's communicated with the Collectors, or so say the traces of his activities on the extranet. I've convinced him to come with you, but I doubt the Suns will want to let him go."

"I was planning on heading for Illium, but I'll have to make the detour. Was there anything else you wanted to tell me?"

"That is all, Shepard. Good luck," with that, the call was cut off and the hologram faded into the brightness of the ceiling lights turning back on. Jane blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light before turning around and heading for the cockpit.

…

"We're just a couple of jumps from Illium, commander, so you can recharge for some eight hours before going on another Blasto mission," Joker said as he swivelled around in his chair.

"Think more post-apocalyptic Joker," Jane smiled as she swiped a finger on her omnitool, sending the coordinates for Korlus, where Okeer was awaiting, "We're going to the Terminus' junkyard."

"Maybe we can drop off our discount-Avina," Joker tilted his head to the side.

"That was exceptionally harsh, Mr. Moreau. Did you by any chance wake up on the wrong side of the chair today?" EDI teased as her hologram popped up.

Joker made a face as he imitated what EDI had said, unable to find a witty comeback. He swivelled back around, plotting a new course, "Looks like we'll be at Korlus first thing in the morning, commander. Might be good to get some shut-eye," he peeked over his shoulder, giving the commander a solemn gaze, "You need it, it's been a long day."

Jane nodded wordlessly before turning around and heading for her quarters.

…

Baker sat at the port observation room, lathering medigel on the burns marks on his chest. The knowledge of the medigel ribcage he had was now impossible to ignore, and he felt the straight edges on his synthetic ribcage as he tended to his wounds. Slapping on a gauze patch, he put his Cerberus fatigues on and went to the mess hall. Everyone from the day-shift had turned in, and a lone deckhand sat at the table. Nicolas nodded silently and went for the fresh food cabinet. Getting an orange, he peeled it and ate the meat quickly as he put some water to boil.

Hal's voice crackled in his translator, "You're making two cups?"

Baker let air out through his nose in a stifled chuckle and typed a note on his omnitool, _I think Shepard could use one, Alchera and stuff._

A synthesized laugh came from within his ear, followed by, "It's funny how small things like this can fix organic's moods."

…

The ride up in the elevator seemed short as her mind fogged up. She felt like she was walking through the blizzard on Alchera as she made her way from the CIC to her quarters. The N7 helmet sat on her desk, all traces of moisture now gone. It looked clean despite the scratch marks and the cracked visor. No more damage than what it would have received from grenade shrapnel slowed down by shields at 50% capacity. It was almost as if it had never fallen from low orbit. Her knees gave as she fell backwards onto the uncomfortably soft mattress and asked EDI to turn off the lights.

Thoughts of her descent towards Alchera materialized in her mind and the nauseating feeling of zero-g flooded her stomach. Goosebumps crept over her arms as her breathing hitched and her heart skipped every few beats. With a hoarse voice she asked for the lights to be turned back on as she sat up, trying to control her breathing and stave off the panic attack. On weak legs she stumbled towards the bathroom, tripping on the stairs. Her ribcage hit the floor hard and her lungs fought back against the intake of air, making every breath a wheeze and every exhale a cough. Pulling herself back up on the toilet seat, she reached the sink. She rested her elbows on the edges and sobbed into her hands, letting the tension from the day out in one big heaving breath. Her whole body shook as nausea made her mouth water. Hooded eyes made their way up from the sink to the edge of the sink's mirror to her reflection. When the gazes met, she found faint orange lights staring back from within her pupils and her stomach twisted, threatening to send her dinner back. In a blur, she dove for the toilet and retched. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she tried to hold something, anything back, but her stomach couldn't stop contracting. When nothing but drool left her mouth, she took a few hitching breaths and sat on the floor. Her head lolled to the side as her breathing steadied. A sound came from far away, it seemed like it was the elevator opening on her deck.

"I really did die."

"You sure did, Jane."

Shepard looked up to see Nicolas, setting two cups on her desk. He came into the bathroom and knelt beside her with pursed lips and knitted brows showing his worry, "Wanna get up from the toilet floor? I hear your bed is way softer."

She smiled half-assedly, "Wayyyy too soft, let's go to the sofa instead, alright?"

He was about to help her get up but she batted his hand away, "I can do it," she wobbled a bit but managed to pull herself up using the sink. She rinsed her mouth thoroughly and then with pause, made her way to the sofa, Nicolas following close behind with the cups in his hands.

The commander started the talking this time around, "We stopped by Alchera last night before going to Bekenstein."

"Yeah, I woke up around 0500 standard and you were down there. Why'd you decide to go now?" Nicolas took a noisy sip to avoid getting burned by the scalding water.

"Anderson reached out to me. I don't know how he got rumours of me being alive, but he asked me to retrieve the dog tags of the people who were KIA," she talked quickly, as if she didn't want to talk about the captain.

"How did that go?"

Glancing at the helmet on her desk, she sighed, "Almost too good. It's been on my mind… how was my helmet left behind? Did they find it on me and remove it or did they find it somewhere else and just took what was useful…"

"Hey, hey, you're here, that's what matters," Nicolas reached over and slapped her lightly on her arm, "You're here now, and you saw what you needed to see," the truth was, that question nagged at him from the moment he saw the old helmet as well, but he didn't want to imagine it.

Shepard looked back at the helmet for a moment before shifting her gaze back to Nicolas, then at her hands that were resting on her lap, "I found dog tags at the wreckage. I'd forgotten that I wasn't the only one who got killed by the Collectors."

"Have the families been notified?"

"Yes. I sent the mission report to Anderson, and I left the dog tags at the Citadel when we picked Kasumi up. I guess it's all wrapped up."

Nicolas pursed his lips for a moment before taking a long sip from his cup, "Even if it is, it's important that you talk about it if it continues bothering you. You know we're all here for you, right?"

Shepard nodded silently, "A lot of you are also getting payed."

Baker snorted, "You know what I mean, Jane. Chakwas, Joker, Garrus… me. We might be getting payed to go into the Omega 4 eventually, but we don't need to get money to tag along with you. Just don't let things stew around in that brain of yours too much, alright?"

She shrugged and Nicolas looked at his omnitool. He sighed, feeling unsatisfied at his efforts to make her feel better but knowing that Korlus was going to be a dangerous mission that he needed to rest for, "We should get a good night's rest if we want to extract Okeer tomorrow. Call me if you need anything, alright?"

"I will, Nicolas. Sleep well," she smiled as Baker got up and headed for the elevator with his cup in hand.

…

EDI's voice filled the cockpit, "Leaving FTL in 3, 2, 1…"

The planet popped into existence, a red-ish brown half covered in white clouds and a glittering aura of abandoned ships coating it while the night side twinkled with more junk in orbit, "So that's Korlus… you can practically see the rust from _here_." Nicolas snorted as he looked through the viewport.

"Looks like we're sending the Kodiak then. I wouldn't want my baby to get scuffed on the wreckage," Joker quipped as Shepard shook her head and chuckled.

"Don't be overprotective Jeff, she'll get scratched up when we go through the Omega 4 anyway," she said as she turned around to head for the cargo bay, "Find us an approach vector, I don't want to scratch the Kodiak on any of the derelicts in low orbit."

Joker nodded as he got to calculating, "That is if they don't fall in while you pass by."

The squad turned around to follow Shepard. She'd chosen Garrus, Jack and Nicolas to come with, now that he was deemed fit for duty by Chakwas. Garrus' suit speakers came to life as they entered the kodiak, "Mind if I tag along?"

"Hal!" Shepard jumped to the side as the familiar voice came from Garrus' direction, "What if EDI finds you?"

"I'm editing myself out of all her data feeds, as well as the responses you're giving me. Don't worry about Cerberus finding me. Anyway, can I help?"

Garrus' mandibles parted in a smile as the HUD in front of him flickered with Hal's presence and the Kodiak lifted off, hovering through the kinetic barrier at the open end of the cargo bay towards the wreckage covered planet below.

"So we're bringing Avina on steroids with us? Hey Hal, what can you do apart from forwarding my messages?" Jack asked the air with a mocking smile.

The other three chuckled and answered in unison, "You'll see."

As the Kodiak pulled away from the last vestiges of the Normandy's mass effect field, Jane opened a comm. channel to Joker, "Alright Jeff, we're heading for our approach vector. We'll keep radio silence to minimise the chances of being detected," with that, she shut off the channel and looked to the ceiling, "Care to bring us in, Hal?"

"I was waiting for you to ask," came the synthetic voice from the shuttle's speakers. The Kodiak creaked as it plunged into a nosedive, using correction thrusters to deftly avoid the layer of debris around Korlus. Inside the hull, the squad held onto the inner walls to avoid crashing into them and each other as the mass effect drive struggled to keep up with the erratic but precise driving of the AI.

Jane turned to face the ground team when her view screen turned a solid orange due to the outside camera being obstructed by plasma forming as the Kodiak entered Korlus' atmosphere. She raised her voice to a small shout as the hull rattled, "Alright, first order of business is to extract Okeer. We know he has created an army of lab-grown krogans with the help of Saren's studies and possibly, Collector technology. These krogan are supposed to be loyal to the Blue Suns in the area but our intel suggests they are entering a state of frenzy, where they attack anyone on sight, regardless of the uniform. It'll be in the Suns' best interest to find a solution to this krogan problem so they probably won't hand over Okeer if we ask for him. Everything that is armed is considered hostile except for Okeer. The layout of our landing zone is in your omnis, so follow me and watch each other's backs. Clear?"

The other three nodded as Hal announced, "I'll be providing support from your omnis and translators," his voice crackled as he engaged the auto-landing sequence and left the Kodiak's systems.

The blast door opened to a platform formed by the rusty and burnt hull of what was once a cargo ship. The squad jumped off before the Kodiak touched down and started moving in the direction their HUD's pointed them in. Distant sounds of gunshots became audible as the jets of the shuttle died down, and the squad jogged, guns raised towards their objective. There was a group of krogan shooting into the distance, suppressive fire keeping them pinned at least for the moment. They didn't seem to be aware of their presence.

"We could get around them," Garrus muttered, his voice carrying over the radio, "Save the clips for anything further down the road."

Shepard considered it for a moment before nodding and urging the group forward with hand signals, going into cover around the aliens. A female voice came from an unseen loudspeaker, "Attention all units, an unidentified vessel has entered Sector 7. Lure the krogan towards them."

Immediately, the suppressive fire over the krogan group ceased. The aliens got out of their cover and looked around before one turned to face Shepard's squad, some 50 metres away. With a hand signal and some radio chatter, the whole group of Krogan turned to the group and charged, shotguns extended.

"Alright. Garrus, Nicolas, take potshots while we take out the ones that get too close," Shepard said as she extended her assault rifle and Jack glowed blue.

"Like old times. You take the right, I go left, Broomhead?"

Garrus' rifle whirred as the barrel screwed itself into position.

"Works for me, Big Bird."

"What is this, Citadel Children's Channel? What's with the nicknames?" Jack made a finger pistol with her hand and 'shot' herself as she lifted her real hand cannon and began shooting at the approaching Krogan.

…

The bald human wiped orange blood from her brow as the last krogan of the group fell to the ground, a sniper round having gone through its head. The squad walked in the direction the krogan had been fired at before they had been alerted to Shepard's presence. The whole place had been coated in fog and smoke, surely in an effort to disorient the rampant krogan. Garrus scouted ahead using the infrared function on his rifle's scope.

"We have a wounded human some twenty meters ahead," his mandibles tightened against his face as he scanned the area ahead before lowering the rifle, "he seems to be unarmed and there is no one else nearby."

"Maybe he can give us a more accurate location for Okeer," Jane commented as she approached, calmly, holstering her gun on her thigh.

The group came within earshot of the human, but he seemed not to notice, gasping and out of breath, he moaned, "Goddamnit, I'm gonna bleed out. I'm gonna fucking die in this shithole. Fucking target practice," he groaned as he tried to move but failed due to the pain coming from his gut, "F-fuck!"

The squad stood before the Blue Suns merc as he looked up between pained breaths. Garrus muttered into his helmet's microphone, "He doesn't look too badly hurt."

"Looks like he doesn't know that," Hal spoke to the squad as the merc sputtered blood out of his mouth before addressing them.

"Who- the hell- are you?" he made a face of disdain, "Alliance? Mercs? It doesn't matter, I'm not telling you anything."

"Look, we need Okeer. If you point us his way, I might drop some medi-gel as I leave," Shepard activated her omnitool, omnigel at the ready as she bent over to be face to face with the merc.

"You fucking-… I don't know anything. I just shoot the overproduction from the lab. The things the krogan is making, they're insane from the get-go. Jedore has us use them for live ammo training, but this is just too much. The krogan has been making way too many for us to-" the merc shook his head with resignation before he was interrupted by a radio announcement coming from his suit's speakers.

It was the female voice again, "Does anybody have a visual on the intruders? Did the krogan eliminate them?"

Shepard stood up as the rest of the squad took a step closer. "You might want to think on your next words. Might be better to just keep quiet," she smirked, not taking her eyes off the merc.

The wounded human's lips tightened as he looked at the squad with glassy eyes. He started shouting, speaking as quickly as he could, "They are on my location! Send reinfo-"

A small crunch came from the merc's mouth as Nicolas jammed his synthetic hand in it just enough to keep him from talking.

A short moment of silence ensued as the squad eyed Nicolas and the merc's mouth. The radio came to life again, "Stay put, we are sending a squad to your location."

"Tell them to go somewhere else, man. This arm is made of metal," Nicolas sneered, "don't give me a reason to push further."

The mercenary nodded slowly, flinching as Baker retrieved his arm, a tooth coming out with it. He flexed his jaw before talking, his voice shaken, "They headed towards outpost theta. I'm too hurt to follow."

"Copy that. Stitch yourself up and head back for R&R, or we'll send a team when the intruders have been dealt with. Jedore out," there was a faint crackle coming from the merc's suit speakers as the communication was cut.

"Good boy," Shepard chuckled. The squad started walking and Shepard dropped a small medi-gel canister, "This should keep you alive until we're gone. Too bad your boss doesn't seem to care much about you."

As the group turned a corner around a crashed ship, Garrus smacked Baker's shoulder lightly, "might wanna shake your hand off, Broomhead, it's dripping."

…

"Theres a cluster of ship debris that has just entered the atmosphere above us. It will be making contact with the ground in 5 minutes, roughly. Be sure to stay under thick cover," Hal's voice crackled through the squad's translators as they neared the research facility where Okeer was working.

The group entered silently, guns raised and scanning through each room as they entered. Up a flight of stairs was a large group of mercenaries keeping guard. Shepard took a quick head count and crouched against the doorway that led to the stairs. The squad huddled around, "Alright, there's 15 hostiles up there. We can't take them out silently, and once the shooting starts, the Suns will know we're here. We cross this door, we race for Okeer."

Looking at each one, Shepard waited for confirmation before walking in, each one with their weapon pointed at a mercenary above. A step creaked and before the enemy could turn to inspect, a biotic shockwave coming from Jack blew them off their feet. A barrage of bullets rose up to shred through the dazed mercs.

Jedore's voice came through the PA system, "They are in the facility! All nearby squads storm the building! I want those fuckers dead!"

"Damn, that bitch has an attitude," Jack grunted as she raised a barrier, blocking bullets that the mercs shot down.

The squad ran up the stairs, Shepard providing suppressive fire with her grenade launcher. Hal was managing Garrus' and Nicolas' assault rifles, high rates of fire with small slugs to deplete shields and switching over to heavy, slow firing slugs to deliver the killing blows.

"Ground team be advised," Joker's voice crackled in their helmets, "orbiting debris has fallen and will be crashing near your location within the next minute."

Jane rolled her eyes before firing another grenade, vaporising a merc, "thanks for the heads up, Jeff!"

"We've got mercs on our tail, Shepard!" Garrus exclaimed as his shields deflected a shot coming from below.

"Shit, keep pushing forward people!" the commander shouted. There was a short cease in the gunfire as an ear piercing crack filled the building, like a thunder clap. A piece of debris had made impact on the building's kinetic defences and shorted it out.

The gunfire began again as the squad rushed the mercs up top as the ones coming from the bottom gained on the squad. Without warning, all sounds were snuffed out as everyone was deafened by a second piece of debris narrowly missing the flight of stairs but tearing a giant hole in the wall beside it. The impact shook the building, making the squad stumble and trip, and a thick cloud of dust completely obscured the bottom of the flight of stairs, swallowing the mercs that had come in.

Her vision was blurry as she stumbled to her feet. Tears streamed from her eyes as they tried to push the dust and ashes out. Her mouth was dry as the particles filled the air around her. She sneezed and coughed silently as the sounds around her were completely lost to the ringing in her ears caused by the derelict ship turned meteorite. Feeling around herself, her hands came to rest on her grenade launcher. A bullet impacted on her leg, coming from above and she stepped back down the stairs, almost tripping on a waking Jack. Jane turned around to see both Nicolas and Garrus had been concentrating their fire on the mercs up top. Surely the ones at the bottom were goners.

A gauntleted hand grabbed her armour's collar and Nicolas' voice rang muffled in her head, "we need that RPG of yours active, Jane! Wake up!"

The commander shook her head and looked down at the grenade launcher. It was caked in dust but hopefully the mechanism would work. She didn't have time to unjam it, so she spat a gob of ash and dust on the floor as the RPG whirred to life and she pointed up.

…

"Alright, booby trap the stairs. We don't want the mercs regrouping and swarming us. What's the damage, people?" Jane asked as everyone walked out of the top side of the stairs, coated in a thick layer of ash.

Garrus got to setting up tripwires and explosives around the top steps of the stairs before exclaiming "my mandibles are itchy from the dust but besides that, all good."

Jack was lathering medigel on a wound on her arm, "I'm gonna have to retouch a couple of tattoos. Nothing major."

Nicolas looked himself over, brushing his armour off, then shrugging and shaking his head. He looked at Jane and pointed a finger at her leg, "you've got a shattered plate, Jane."

She pursed her lips, "I'll try to not get shot there again, but I've got full shields now so it shouldn't be too hard."

"Maybe Hal can help keep you protected," Nicolas looked at his omnitool, hoping the AI would know it was being addressed, "Right?"

Shepard's omnitool flickered for a second before the synthetic voice came from her suit's speakers, "I'll be optimizing her shielding systems. Commander, my optimizations will kick in when your hold over your biotic barriers strain," he added through her translator, "try not to be reckless."

She nodded before eyeing Jack to make sure her wound was properly dressed before the squad left the stairwell, disappearing into the thick cloud of dust the derelict ship had raised.

…

A krogan huddled against the rusty wall of an old starship. Bullets pinged against the opposite side as the alien emptied his pouches in search for thermal clips. As the bullets zipped past the cover, lifting up dust, the krogan's eye was caught by a faint glimmer. It was a handgun, left there by another being, surely killed by either his equals or the falling debris. Digging his feet into the ground, he prepared to make a dash for the handgun and hopefully, a half depleted thermal clip to use in his assault rifle.

 _Reload, kill, live._

The three words repeated incessantly in his brain until his thoughts were interrupted by gunshots coming from a completely new direction. His keen eyesight spotted a group of four aliens, dressed in colours he didn't recognize, shooting at the blue clad humans that had been trying so hard to end his life. The krogan looked down at his hands, the armour caked in dust, its burgundy colour almost unrecognizable. Every muscle fibre in his body screamed for him to run for the handgun, but he knew that sudden movements provoked hostility, and for the first time since he first opened his eyes, he wished for nothing more than a break from battle. The muscles in his jaws had for the first time relaxed, wanting to open his mouth instead of clenching it. A tremor spread through his body and the dark, gravelly voice that had spoken to him before time had even been a concept died down. There was silence in his head and now the world spoke, loud and clear. Soon, the world also became silent, and his attention was drawn back to the approaching group. The one walking in front was particularly intriguing. There was the shimmer of biotic barriers around her, but there was also the faint blue glow of a shielding system.

The newcomers were definitely a force that he couldn't take on in his state, and if there was something he didn't want, it was to die in such unfair circumstances. The emptiness in his mind was becoming suffocating. He knew he could speak, so he approached the group, chewing and flexing his jaw even though his mouth was empty. One of the newcomers, a turian, raised his assault rifle at the krogan, but the weapon was lowered by the leader's hand.

The krogan spoke, his voice similar to the one that spoke to his mind, to his surprise, "You… are different. New. Something the voice hasn't told me of. For seven night cycles, I have only had the need to kill, but you… something makes me speak."

"I didn't know the cannon fodder could be chill," Jack spoke up, shaking her head, "but it's good with words for being a week old."

"I have existed for longer than 7 night cycles, but I was yet unborn. Everything I know, the voice has taught me. It taught me to kill, survive, to recognize what you are and what I am. It taught me I was imperfect and that I was to survive outside the glass mother, but it didn't tell me to speak things not of battle."

"So he's tank bred, and Okeer seems to be making them not just for army purposes- if he's trying to perfect them," Garrus pieced together.

"The voice said when the time comes, we would not march for the blue suns, but instead for us, as krogan. When we are perfect, it said."

"I'm guessing he wants to cure the genophage, then?" Shepard shook her head and took a step closer to the krogan, inquisitive.

"The voice didn't mention a cure. It mentioned that we were to resist, overcome, ignore."

Shepard stayed silent for a moment, taking in what the krogan was saying, "Can you take us to the tank mother?"

The krogan shook its head but started walking towards a wall, "I am imperfect, but I have been given a purpose. I must kill all of the blue suns, wherever they may come from, and I must guard the way to the glass mother, which is this," the alien gripped a piece of overlapping steel and lifted with a small grunt. It faintly glowed blue until the plate had cleared the floor and then the krogan dropped it to the side, "this is the way to the glass mother. If you speak with the voice, it can give you more complete answers. I must stay. My purpose is protect or die, and there is nothing else."

The group walked one by one through the hole in the wall as the krogan walked slowly towards the handgun at the far side of the area. Jack was bringing up the group's rear, but she paused at the opening. She drew her hand cannon and aimed for the krogan's back, smirking. A hand harshly pulled her gun down, almost making her let go. She turned with furious eyes to face the annoyed stare of Nicolas.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? Just let it fulfil its purpose. It'll be dead before long."

The biotic glowed blue and Nicolas skidded backwards, his legs adapting to the changed centre of gravity to keep his footing. She closed the distance herself now, getting up in his face, "If he's dead anyway, I could've shot him now. What do you care about it?" with that, she walked past him, bumping onto his shoulder as she went, "Since when have you actually had the moral compass of a human being anyway, Baker?"

Nicolas' heart raced in his chest, anger bubbling within his stomach. Hal's voice crackled through his translator, "Shepard gave her access to Cerberus files to gaud her into joining. I bet she knows a little of what happened in Omega. Don't let her get to you."

…

The squad stood facing Okeer and the krogan within the glass tank. The krogan Warlord unconsciously placed a scaly hand on the glass tube as he spoke, "The Collectors offered bits of their technology, which ended up allowing me to make variants more powerful than ever before, but Jedore has started growing impatient with my results. Stupid human, she does not know what she is hindering."

Jane shook her head, "But whatever you're doing is making the tank-breds insane, uncontrollable. Why use Collector technology if they make your results less krogan than the krogan?"

Okeer's sharp pupils focused on Shepard, "You do not understand either, Shepard. My tank-bred krogan are perfectly sane and capable. It is Jedore that lacks the strength to guide them, like a true krogan would. You miss the point of the Collector technology. You think it allows me to create smarter or stronger beings, but that is not what I search for."

"You're trying to cure the genophage," Nicolas offered.

"No. A cure to the genophage would cripple the intricate system that has made our species so resilient. No. The collector technology has helped me create a new way for us to overcome our curse. This specimen, this event of chance, this force of nature!" Okeer raised his hands to the krogan, "I let the technology accelerate his responses to the adversities that this Galaxy has for it and it ended up doing the worst thing the enemy, the genophage could endure: he's ignoring its effects."

A few seconds of silence ensued as Okeer admired his creation, before the PA system came to life with Jedore's voice, "The intruders are with Okeer! That's it, this is as far as you go, Krogan! All available units form up on me. We're starting from scratch, with Okeer's research. Purge the tanks!"

The warlord looked out the window of his lab into the Maturing Hall. He spied Jedore activate the emergency purge and the tanks started emptying. He turned to the console beside him to separate the prodigy's systems with those of the ones outside, "She would destroy my life's creation with a valve! Shepard, this specimen is unique. I cannot recreate it. I will not leave without it, so stop Jedore!"

…

Nicolas panted as he ran around an empty tank after a Blue Suns merc. In a split second, he batted away the barrel of the shotgun the mercenary was holding, making it fire against a frenzied krogan that was approaching the two. The pellets shredded through the armour and the alien's belly, letting a big splash of orange blood fall to the floor. As the krogan dropped to its knees, Nicolas punched the merc with his synthetic arm, shattering the visor on his helmet before he used his real arm to jam his pistol in the helmet's opening and pulling the trigger. Red blood sprayed out and Nicolas squinted, avoiding the warm liquid. As he took a step back, the back of his neck was surrounded by scaly fingers coated in orange blood. The blood-curdling roar of the dying krogan shook Nicolas' insides as he was lifted off the ground, the joints in his neck popping as the fingers tightened slowly.

"Jane, Nicolas needs help NOW!" Hal exclaimed through the commander's translator as she took cover behind a tank, her shields depleted. She looked up to see Baker being lifted by the bloodied krogan across the room. Her head throbbed as she took quick, deep breaths to ready herself for a biotic dash. Her vision blurred and nausea pooled up in her stomach as her biotics strained and the mass effect fields pulled at her brain. She started to glow blue as she blacked out.

The pressure from the krogan's hand slid down to Baker's neck muscles, allowing his jaw to open just barely as he screamed, hoping someone would hear before his medula was severed by the krogan. A blue blur made impact against the alien, making it let go, and Nicolas fell. His landing was softened by an unconscious Jane. She'd rammed into the krogan, pushing it to the ground, but not incapacitating it. The alien roared, fuelled by the rage of being near death. It grabbed Shepard's hair and started standing up. Nicolas stepped back and looked at the arsenal Shepard had on her back as she went up, "Hal, I need that shotgun."

The gun started expanding as Nicolas pulled it off her back and took aim at the krogan, blinded by its blood rage. A quick shotgun blast decimated its head and the alien let Shepard go before falling backwards. Nicolas let the shotgun fall and eased Shepard down before pulling her assault rifle off her back. He dragged her behind the breeding tank and fired towards any merc who even thought of coming closer, his energies renewed.

Jack propelled a grenade into the joints of the las YMIR mech with her biotics as Jedore unknowingly took cover behind it. The robot blew up as the shrapnel wreaked havoc within it and the merc boss was flung across the room. She got up surprisingly fast to line up her crosshairs on Nicolas and a waking Shepard when a sniper round from Garrus' rifle whizzed through her head.

EDI's voice came through all of their radios, "Shepard, Jedore's purge has caused a system failure in the labs. I have been able to take partial control over the systems and am ventilating Okeer's lab. The room had been flooded with neurotoxins and his life signs are dwindling. I doubt he will make it."

"Shit," Shepard shook her drowsiness away as she self-administered anti-inflammatories to stave the biotic headache away, "Everyone to Okeer's lab, on the double!"

…

"I see your mission was a success, Shepard!" The Illusive man took a puff from his ever-present cigarette, his voice a little more enthusiastic than other times.

"I don't see why you're so happy. Okeer is dead, and now we have a 'perfect krogan' asleep in the cargo bay. Who knows what perfect meant to Okeer."

"The krogan said he'd put all his research into the tank-bred's mind. Whatever he knows of the research on the Collector technology, I'll get it from him when you finish the mission."

Jane crossed her arms, wary of what the Illusive man might do, and what he might find. She made a mental note to find a way in which she could avoid handing the krogan over to Cerberus. She chewed on the inside of her lip for a moment before speaking again, "If there's nothing else, I'll set a course for Illium to retrieve the-"

The Illusive man had stopped listening mid-sentence before he interrupted Jane, "wait, Shepard. This just came in… Horizon! One of our colonies in the Terminus! It just went silent. If it's not being attacked by the Collectors, it will be soon. Has Dr. Solus created a countermeasure for the neurotoxins they use?"

Shepard frowned and shook her head, "Not just yet."

"Well, let's hope he works well under pressure. You have to head that way now. I calculate you'll be there within 24 hours. There is one more thing. A member of your old crew, Ashley Williams, has been stationed at Horizon."

Something was wrong. Jane looked at the Illusive man, trying to read his face, "Ashley is alliance. Why would she be out in the Terminus?"

The head of Cerberus puffed out smoke, the side of his mouth curling up in a self-satisfied smile, "officially, it's an outreach initiative to improve alliance-colony relationships. But they're up to something, and if they sent Chief Williams, it's big. The Collectors are cunning. Maybe they're invading a colony with her in it to get to you, which is exactly why you cannot fail. This could be our breakthrough, Shepard, the first time we get first-hand experience with them!

The excitement was contagious, and Jane jogged for the cockpit to talk to Joker as soon as she had cut off the call.

"I've been forwarded our course, Commander! Should we get going?" the pilot didn't even turn around to face the newcomer as his hands dashed around the screens in front of him.

"Punch it, Joker! How soon 'til we're there?"

The pilot tapped a finger on an aerogel screen, "Twenty-one short hours, taking into account atmospheric entry. Should I gather the crew for a briefing?"

"I'll do that tomorrow, after a little planning. Remember we can't land without Mordin's countermeasure," with that, Shepard left the cockpit and headed for her quarters.

…

"Commander, Mr. Baker is requesting permission to enter." EDI's voice filled the room as Shepard sat at her desk, datapads set edge to edge, covering her desk to make one large screen.

"Let him in, EDI."

The door whooshed open as the human entered, an energy bar in his hand, "You missed dinner, Jane."

"I'll go get something to eat when the planning's been done."

"Planning? What is there to plan?"

"The Illusive man was able to get me the layout of the Colony. It's important that we know the field as good as possible, so we can adapt quicker to anything the Collectors send our way," Shepard spoke, her eyes glued to the map on her desk, marking possible landing zones and important buildings.

Nicolas shrugged before offering her the energy bar, "Makes sense. I just wanted to say thanks for the save down there."

"Don't mention it, just try to get in trouble _before_ I overstrain my biotics next time," she turned around at the end of the sentence and winked before taking the energy bar.

Baker smiled, "10-4, commander!"

"Military talk doesn't fit you Nicolas," she chuckled, "Just don't be reckless, alright?"

"I'll do my best."

"That's what I want to hear. Now go get some shut-eye. We've got a long day ahead of us, and I need everyone ready tomorrow. Could you tell Garrus to leave the rest of his calibrations for some other time?"

"I'll pass it on," he rested a hand on her shoulder for a moment before turning around to head for the door, "Good night, Jane!"

The door whooshed open and then closed as he left. She put a hand on her shoulder, where Nicolas' had been, "Good night."

* * *

 **And that's it! Chapter 2! Hope you enjoyed it! Until next time!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3! Enjoy!**

 **Everything in this fanfic is owned by Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

"Dr. Solus," Miranda's voice was clear and piercing in the almost complete silence of the lab.

Mordin stood at a terminal beside a glass cage holding a Collector swarm drone, his hands silently touching the holographic keyboard. The salarian's eyes didn't leave the screen as he nodded, acknowledging the Cerberus Operative's presence, "Operative Lawson. You are here for an update."

The doctor took his eyes off the monitor and stepped over to the cage, where the alien was crawling frantically along the walls, looking for a crevice, "Possible solutions. Collector drone responds to several stimuli. Radio waves, light, sound, generic pheromones, mass effect fiel-"

"Doctor, what do you make of it?"

Mordin blinked, skipping the rest of what he was about to say. He continued, at the same speed, "Drone is attracted to small mass effect fields. Present in kinetic shielding and omnitools. Easy way to identify technologically advanced beings. Drones seem to ignore other Collectors, yet collectors must use similar technology. Curious. Logical step was to try different mass effect frequencies by changing electrical current going through eezo," the alien made a miniscule pause to take a breath, "It worked."

Miranda slightly raised her eyebrows in well masked surprise, "Can it be implemented before we reach Horizon?"

Mordin returned to his terminal, "Was working on that. Will need weapons and shield generators of the ground team. Who will be going?"

"The commander was planning on bringing everyone in two separate squads, since we will probably be vastly outnumbered."

The doctor stopped typing for a millisecond, almost surprised, "Oh. Will have to make several models. Could take a couple of hours of simulation and installation. I'll postpone sleep more hours," he looked at Miranda, "Will have equipment ready by 0600."

…

Nicolas walked towards the cockpit, reviewing the map Shepard had sent to the ground team. There were two entry points, one for each group, and a rendezvous at a communications tower. _If the colony's gone silent, it's safe to say they are jamming communications, so it's only fitting that we meet up where we have the best chance of communicating with the Normandy and each other,_ she'd said.

The Normandy shuddered as it left FTL travel and Horizon materialized in the darkness ahead. The surface looked similar to earth, splashes of green dotting blue oceans, except for a swirling, yellow storm along the equator. Tendrils of yellow lightning spread outwards from the storm's eye. Nicolas crossed his arms beside Joker's chair and snorted, "Talk about inconspicuous."

"Yeah, I wonder if that's how they jam communications," Joker scratched his beard as Kasumi walked up to the pair, uncloaked and making sure her steps were making enough noise for them to hear her.

"Static interference from dust storms? I mean, it works as long as no one off planet is looking," she commented, a hand on her chin.

Baker turned to face the master thief, a sad smile on his face, "When you're invading a colony with that much firepower, it doesn't matter if you get caught."

Kasumi looked at the ominous storm, "You mean like the Eden Prime invasion."

Nicolas nodded, lost in the view. He shook his head to snap himself back to reality and turned to head for the cargo hold, "Let's see if we can save more people this time around."

…

Mordin, Jacob, Jack and Kasumi piled into the Kodiak. Their objective was to scout the colony to find anyone who might've escaped the Collectors and remained in hiding and gather intel from any Collectors they meet. Shepard, Garrus, Nicolas and Miranda would get off in the outskirts of the colony and head straight for the rendezvous point to draw most of the Collector attention and determine how widespread Collector forces were.

The cargo bay blast door opened as the Kodiak lifted off and exited the kinetic barriers. The remaining four squad members stood on the loading platform, awaiting for arrival at the insertion point. A gust of wind brought some dust inside, gathering in the crevices on the cargo bay floor. Garrus shivered for a second, "It's chillier than it looks."

"Horizon has lots of little surprises. The gravity strength is closer to Luna than it is to earth, and the atmo is at 1.7 bars. Let's hope winds aren't too strong, it'll make running a problem," Miranda checked her weapons and adjusted the holographic visor resting on her brow.

"Oooh look at the little scientist," Nicolas chuckled, "what's the weather forecast for today, Ms. Lawson?"

The humour seemed to land with everyone except Miranda until she answered, "13°C with a chance of Collector swarm."

The Normandy arrived at the drop off location. It hovered at five metres over the ground. Jane approached the edge of the loading ramp and turned to face the team, "Let's hope Mordin's umbrella works, then."

With that, the squad jumped down. The low gravity made the landing soft, and soon the whole squad was crouched, approaching the rendezvous point through a field of genetically modified wheat. Everything was submerged in an ominous yellow light as the dust storm the Collector ship had created dimmed the sun and covered up the habitual king blue of the Horizon sky.

Nicolas pointed his rifle's scope at the Collector ship's base, then the tip, "3 k's, the tip is at 4 k's. That's…"

Hal spoke into his translator, "With 36° of elevation, the Collector ship stands at 2.2 kilometres in height."

Nicolas chewed on his lip, then spoke through the radio, "That ship is _way_ too big to enter the gravity of a planet and then take off. It has to have some _gigantic_ eezo effect cores."

Mordin's voice crackled through the radio, slightly interrupted by static, "Indeed. Eviden- of extremely advanced –nology. Reaper tech possible explanation."

Garrus raised a hand closed into a fist. The squad stopped as he talked through a short range channel, "We have four Collectors a hundred meters ahead. Heat signals show three more objects on the ground. They could be humans."

Shepard crept over to Garrus and took his rifle, using it to look at the group ahead. She returned the rifle and turned to address the squad, "We want to take them out as quickly as possible to avoid any collateral damage on the possible hostages. Miranda and I will get as close as we can while you two take the flanks. When you see that the Collectors have noticed us, open fire."

The squad nodded and fanned out. It was surprising how quickly Nicolas lost sight of the rest as they stalked into the wheat field. The thunder coming from the dust storm blocked out any noise his steps were making as he kept an eye on the Collectors with his thermal scope. The human figures stayed prone on the ground, immobile. He turned to eye Shepard and Miranda's heat signatures. The two were now twenty metres away from the Collectors and still there were no signs of any disturbance.

Hal spoke into his translator, "These Collectors are unshielded. It would be smart to aim at the middle one, who's within the field of view of the rest. You'd draw fire away from Shepard."

"Do they have a clean shot now?" Nicolas asked as he lined up the crosshairs on the Collector Hal had suggested.

"Yes. Fire when ready."

He had his index finger putting pressure on the trigger. Another millimetre and the rifle would fire. The Collector suddenly whipped its head to face the direction of Shepard and Miranda, and the next its head exploded into a cloud of dark green liquid, as well as the head of another Collector a few metres back. Shepard stood up to dash at the Collectors, the impact of her biotics sending one of them flying detached to its arms, and the other one was swiftly taken down by Miranda's hand cannon.

Through the scope, Nicolas could see Shepard clapping her hands together to shake the dust off her gloves. He heard her chuckle through the radio, "that wasn't too hard."

"Shepard, the hostages are moving," Garrus spoke as he noticed the prone heat signatures stirring.

She turned around and pulled out her shotgun, "They're not hostages, Garrus," the shot rang through the radio, "they're husks!"

…

Garrus and Nicolas approached the other two, who were standing over the dead Collectors. Two piles of ash were being blown away by soft gusts of wind. Garrus nodded at the now dispersed piles, "So the husks are disintegrating? That's different to the ones the Geth made."

Their radios crackled to life and Mordin's voice came through, "Shepard. Have encountered huskified humans. They disintegrate after death."

"Copy that, Mordin," Shepard raised a hand to her ear. She frowned as she scanned the horizon, "The Geth used structures we called Dragon's teeth to make them, though. Have you seen any of those around?"

Jacob's voice crackled through the radio next, "I've been looking, Commander. We haven't encountered any. They probably make them in the ship to deploy at colonies for disposable firepower in case anyone gets past the swarms. Like they're using the colonists to make an army."

"I doubt they're trying to make an army, it would be going to way too much trouble for the same results the Geth obtained with less effort," Garrus commented as he turned around, looking for any Dragon's teeth.

"The Geth received this technology from Sovereign. So the Illusive man was right, The Collectors are working for the Reapers," Miranda sounded oddly proud.

"Wherever the tech came from, we have no time to waste. Let's go," Shepard urged as she pointed her gun towards the radio tower in the direction of the Collector ship.

…

The squad entered the more urban zone of the Colony. Pods lined the buildings, with the colonists inside. Garrus and Nicolas tried to pry one open in vain, and other colonists stood frozen in place, a strange dark aura surrounding them. Mordin spoke over the radio as the squad crept closer to the rendezvous point, "Some colonists have been left here. Possible logistic problem. Maintained in some kind of stasis field. Conscious, yet immobile."

Jacob's voice came through the radio again, "That's weird, the geth didn't need live humans for the huskifying process."

"Goes to prove my point, they're being taken for another reason," Garrus answered, his mandibles tight against his face, the tension evident in his voice.

"Heads up! We've got Collector swarms approaching," Nicolas pointed his rifle into the air, eyeing the dark cloud of bugs that coated the sky above the colony like dark shooting stars.

"Ground tea- -ing connection! Com- … Shep-" Joker's voice cut to static, and a continuous line of static came from the other strike team's radio channel.

"Looks like the swarm is responsible for the jamming. Alright, we're heading straight for the tower. We have to establish comms," Shepard said as a group of Collectors flew to the open space ahead.

The squad readied their weapons as they took cover to avoid the steady stream of fire coming from the aliens. Shepard peeked around the living unit's corner she was hiding behind to see one of the Collectors start to twitch uncontrollably. Her stomach twisted itself into a knot as images of Saren turning into a husk flooded her mind. The Collector's eyes shone yellow as it levitated off the ground, and its chitinous shell cracked under the outward pressure of its internal cybernetics overloading.

A synthetic voice echoed throughout the area. Its ominous tone rattled the squad's guts, "Assuming direct control."

"Now _that_ is Reaper tech," Garrus whispered into the short range radio as he loaded a heavy Osmium block into his rifle. The turian got up from his crouching position behind a crate and aimed at the possessed Collector. As soon as the round made impact on its barrier, it turned to face the turian. Another round came from Nicolas, this time tilting its head to the side, as if it had been punched on the temple.

"We'll deal with the shiny one! You two keep the rest off Miranda and I!" Shepard exclaimed through the radio as she readied her biotics.

"Fair enough," Garrus got up again and was immediately blinded by a bright yellow beam being shot at him. He crouched back down and was able to mutter a quick 'spirits!' before the particle beam cut through his cover like butter, "Nicolas, get that bug off me!"

Baker saw the turian running for heavier cover as the particle beam followed close behind. He lined up the crosshairs with the firing Collector as his rifle whirred, loading a heavier slug. The shot entered through the eye but was unable to penetrate the other side of the skull, making the alien's head whip around as it fell on its knees, "What's the problem, Big Bird, we're not using codenames anymore?"

A sniper round disabled the shields of another Collector, then a second one delivered the killing blow, "Not in that particular situation. I like having all my original limbs, thank you very much!"

Shepard concentrated behind her cover, glowing blue. A Collector that had been flanking towards her was decimated by sniper rifle fire, and she turned the corner to send a warping mass effect field when she saw it fall. Miranda followed suit and the two warped the space around the possessed Collector. The air glowed blue and yellow as the alien twitched, until its armour gave into the pressure and it was shredded into glowing pieces that spontaneously combusted.

"Looks like it's down!" Shepard smiled until she caught another Collector starting to glow, "Or not."

…

"Guess that's all of them," Jane panted as the second possessed Collector combusted in front of her after being on the receiving end of a biotic dash.

"The communications tower is just beyond that building," Miranda tilted her chin towards a warehouse.

"Looks like it would be in our best interest to cross through, I see a moving heat signature. Could be a colonist," Garrus muttered as he eyed the building through his scope.

"Nicolas, can you get the door open?" Jane winked at Baker, knowing Hal was with him.

"I'll give it a shot," he chuckled as he approached the red lock.

Hal spoke into his translator, "You're only getting credit because Lawson is here."

Baker smiled as he typed a message into the omnitool, _don't be petty, Hal._

"Petty?! Maybe I should leave the door locked, see how you like it," the AI exclaimed into his translator as the door opened.

…

The squad entered, guns holstered to not startle the human. He came out from behind some crates and eyed the newcomers, "You- you're not Alliance."

"We're here to help," Shepard avoided the topic. Alliance forces were seen with contempt, who knew how the civilian would've reacted to Cerberus, "There are turrets placed outside the colony but they're not operational, can-"

"Ah! Those Alliance assholes never could get them up and running. The targeting matrix something or other, I don't know," the man shook his head, upset. He continued with a mocking voice, "Oh, you need protection! Let's bring these turrets which will paint a giant target on your asses! Oh, we can't get them running so the target is still there but the turrets can't protect you! Boo hoo. Goddamn worthless alliance, should've let us be."

Jane frowned, it was a shame a simple turret system couldn't be set up, and now the colonists were paying the price, "It would definitely drive the Collectors away. If I wanted to set up the targeting matrix, where would I do it?"

"The control centre for the turret is far away, in the outskirts of the colony," the colonist looked at the floor, defeated. A second later his head snapped back up, hope in his eyes, "b-but there's a communications tower right outside! Maybe you can get it running remotely."

"Alright, stay put. We'll send help when we can," Shepard was walking towards the exit before she was done talking. Hal hacked the exit open and closed it behind the squad.

The tower stood at the middle of a large yard, peppered with crates and pallets burdened to capacity with farming equipment and construction materials. The second strike team was huddled at the tower. Mordin was nursing a wound on Kasumi's shoulder, and the other two guarded them. Jacob spied the approaching group and beckoned for them to come closer, quickly.

As Shepard's group approached, running while crouched, they spied the remains of Collectors between the crates. Scorch marks ran along the boxes and the ground, where particle beams had struck. Explosive canisters had gone off all around the place, leaving black burn marks on the ground like craters.

"You sure took a while," Jacob addressed the group, stealing a glance at Miranda.

"We have a way to get rid of the Collectors," Shepard said as she cut to the chase.

"GARDIAN turrets," Mordin said as he coated the medigel bandage around Kasumi's shoulder in omnigel, "EDI is working on the targeting matrix. Power generators will have to be initialized soon. This will attract even more Collectors. Need to be ready," the doctor finished by hardening the omnigel, fashioning a makeshift cast.

Kasumi tested her cloak and after a few fizzles, the nanobots responsible for the rerouting of light covered the omnigel patch. She reverted to full visibility and nodded at Shepard. The thief pulled her gun from its holster and activated her cloak as she muttered, "I'm good as long as I stay in hiding."

EDI's voice came through the radio, "I've successfully integrated the Normandy's targeting protocols with the turret array. I have started powering up the generators, so expect the Collectors reacting to the energy signature. I need the tower to remain intact, Shepard."

"Alright everyone. Spread out, we need to make as dispersed a target as possible. Keep an eye on each other and be ready to lend a hand…" Shepard stopped talking as the distant noise of a ship hummed louder and louder.

Nicolas pointed a finger at the sky, his eyes not understanding what he was seeing, "What. The fuck. Is that?"

A dark blue beetle like creature approached floating on mass effect fields. It was slow and hulking, yet as it grew nearer, the squad was able to make out countless husk heads filling its mouth. Everyone watched in horrified silence as it loomed over the yard until Shepard spoke through the radio in a hushed tone, "My squad will open fire on the creature. Jacob's squad, keep an eye on it but focus on anything else the Collectors might send our way."

A flurry of acknowledgements came through Shepard's radio. She raised her rifle and exclaimed, "Light it up, people!"

As soon as the first bullet hit the creature, it glowed purple and slammed its body into the ground below. The wave of biotic energy that was expelled from it knocked almost everyone off their feet. Shepard's squad resumed firing on it immediately as Jacob's squad was quickly occupied with keeping Collector reinforcements at bay.

The creature crawled around and over crates on its synthetic legs at a surprising speed, surely aided by mass effect fields. Its unnerving twitching made it look like it was in sped up footage as it deftly avoided gunfire. Jacob's squad had a hard time keeping their fire focused on the reinforcements as they had to evade the particle beam the creature was shooting.

Nicolas ran around a crate to avoid fire from the Collectors, thanking whoever was watching over him that the creature was focusing on the crate that Miranda was hiding behind as Garrus tried to draw its fire. He panted as his shields regenerated and he looked at the giant, nimble monster. He aimed his rifle at it and to his surprise, saw a bullet penetrate the shell: its kinetic barriers were down!

"Shepard, it's taking bullets now! Hit it with something strong!" Nicolas shouted with his hand raised to his ear.

Without missing a beat, Shepard's response was broadcasted over the radio, "You heard Nicolas! Everyone with a grenade or a hard hitting weapon, focus on the giant bug!"

"Nicolas, find cover!" Hal shouted into his translator. It seemed like the creature understood English as it slowly turned to face Nicolas, its eyes glowing as it prepared to fire.

Nicolas could clearly see the husk faces glowing within its mouth, and the eerie blue orbs that were the creatures eyes. He felt the heat of the laser building up as he stood up and backed into a crate too big to vault over. His heart raced as he realized he wouldn't have time to escape the blast completely as he strafed to the side, firing from the hip at the creature.

A rocket propelled grenade exploded above the creature's head, nudging its head down as it started firing. The particle beam missed Nicolas but hit an explosive canister in front of him. His shields took the brunt of the shockwave as the crate behind him was toppled over and he flew over it, bumping his heels on the edge. He was unable to make out where he was going as he spun in the air, landing on something hard which ended up giving under his weight in a wet crunch. He raised a hand, dazed, to find it coated in greenish-black goo. Shaking the dizziness away, he looked around him to see the remains of a Collector that had been previously shot down. A bullet overloaded his shield as Hal yelled into his ear, "GET TO COVER, BAKER!"

The human got up on dextrous feet and dashed behind a crate to shield himself from the Collector fire. He looked at the ground and found a Collector hand holding on to a weapon that almost looked organic, except for the metallic barrel jutting out from the front end. He ripped the hand off with his prosthetic and let Hal interface with it.

"It's the Collector particle beam. It doesn't have any user-authentication system. You can fire it right away," Hal's voice sounded surprised.

A hysterical smile came to Nicolas' mouth. Gnashing his teeth, he grunted, "You don't need to say that twice."

The synthetic buzzing of the weapon drowned all the other noises as Nicolas swept the beam over the outer edges of the clearing, mowing down Collectors left and right. The chitinous shells seemed to be exceptionally weak to the beam's heat output, as the aliens popped before their shields were completely depleted.

"Jacob, leave the bugs to me. Help Shepard out," Nicolas shouted into his radio as he fired on the targets Hal was pointing out. The darker man saw the death count Baker was reeling in, so he nodded and turned to fire on the monster.

…

The squad was running low on thermal clips when all of a sudden the Collector forces stopped firing and turned tail to fly for the ship.

"What the fuck is with these guys?!" Jack sputtered as a stream of blood from her brow got into her mouth. She fired her hand cannon at the retreating aliens.

EDI's voice came through the radio, "They surely anticipated the generators would be ready right now. Firing-" her voice was snuffed out by the turrets coming to life. The deafening roar of the GARDIAN lasers superheating the air in front of them was followed by the thunder clap of the surface of the Collector ship exploding from the laser's strength. More explosions followed as the squads crouched, covering their ears. The colossal ship wasted no time in escaping. Its thrusters activated as soon as the first laser hit, sending clouds of dust in every direction for kilometres. The strike team had to hide behind crates as the dusty winds rushed by at thirty metres per second.

It was only seconds before the ship was but a bright light in the sky, out of range and impossible to catch up with. In the distance, the squad was able to hear the screams of the colonists who had been left behind. The stasis effects were wearing off.

Mordin coughed before commenting on the fact, "Interesting. Collector stasis effect has proximity as limiting factor. Surely originating from ship," he spared a moment to look at the sky, "Clouds are dispersing."

Shepard panted as she looked at the light become a distant star until it faded into the sunset sky. She gnashed her teeth, the feeling of failure invading her. The ship was gone and they were not an inch closer to getting through the Omega 4 relay.

Her disappointment became annoyance as the voice of the civilian came from behind her, "They took half the colony! Brandt, René, all gone!" Jane's hands started shaking and her heart was thumping against her ribcage. Then the civilian had to go and say it, "You're letting them get away."

Shepard snapped. She whipped her head around to stare the civilian down. The man shut up immediately as the commander approached, her pupils glowing orange, "What did you want me to do? Go catch up in my Kodiak? You've contributed nothing to this and you think this makes you feel worse than us?"

"Shepard, he's not worth it," Miranda cautioned before Jane was able to reach the civilian, that had already started shrinking into his shoulders and turning to expose as little of himself as possible.

The man's eyes opened wide with recognition, "Shepard… you're-you're some kind of Alliance hero."

"More like a martyr, Delan," a familiar voice came from an alley that led into the clearing. Ashley Williams walked up to them, standing between the civilian and Jane, "Commander Shepard, saviour of the Citadel," her tone had mock-admiration in it, it was hostile.

The civilian shook his head, "Whatever she is, I've had enough of you Alliance types," with that, he stormed off. Shepard watched the man go before turning to Ashley.

"I'm glad to see you're alright, Ashley," Jane offered, perplexed at the Captain's contempt.

Williams let out a sarcastic laugh, "Wish I could say the same about you, Shepard. Two years of thinking you were dead and you didn't have the _decency_ to let me know you were alive?"

"I _was_ dead! It took Cerberus two years to rebuild me. I've been alive just for a couple of weeks!" Shepard's voice shook as she tried to reason with the alliance soldier.

Ashley remained silent for a second as she regarded Shepard's company, "So the reports are true. You _are_ working for Cerberus," she sneered and tilted her chin at Garrus and Nicolas, "I see you even brought the _skullface_ and your lapdog with you."

Baker stepped forward, "Who do you think you-" he kept his silence when Shepard raised a hand. Shaking his head, he walked away as Garrus stared wide-eyed at Ashley, his mandibles tight against his face and his teeth starting to show.

The alliance soldier continued, "You betrayed the alliance by joining Cerberus. You're a traitor."

Shepard tried her best to keep her voice level, "Try to look at the bigger picture, Ashley! I'm working _with_ Cerberus to stop the Collectors. They're working with the Reapers, for God's sake!"

Ashley shook her head, "Our intel suggests _Cerberus_ is working with the Collectors, Shepard-"

Miranda butted in, "Typical alliance attitude, believing everything the higher ups say."

"You keep your mouth shut, you're just a brainwashed terrorist. Shepard, Cerberus could be playing with the truth, bending it," Ashley paused and studied Shepard's scars and her eyes, "Maybe they've altered you to make you believe everything they say, what did they do to you, Shep-"

"Shut up, Williams!" Nicolas shouted, hand on his holster, "You have no idea what you're talking about!"

Jane raised her arms, her calm commander face on, "Look around you, Ashley. There's Collector remains everywhere. Their weapons have to be based on Reaper technology. You surely saw the husks they brought with them as well."

She shook her head, "What are you talking about? We've had particle beam technology for years now, and if husks were here, we'd be able to see some, right? Face it, Shepard, the Reapers died with Sovereign. They're gone."

"The Reapers are far from gone!" Shepard exclaimed. She took a deep breath, defeated, "It looks like you won't listen to reason."

Ashley pointed a finger at Jane, "You left everyone for two years and then you show up as Cerberus' trusty dog. If anyone stopped listening to reason, it's you," she snorted, "It doesn't matter. I know where my loyalties lie. I'm reporting this to the Citadel. We'll see if they believe your fever dream."

With that, Ashley turned around and left. Garrus grunted with disdain and started pacing around. Shepard raised her hand to her ear, "Joker, send the shuttle to pick us up. I've had enough of this Colony."

…

The hologram of the Ilusive man began to materialize but Jane wasn't going to wait for him to start talking, "How the hell did Ashley know I was alive? She was at the far side of the Terminus, there is no way that news reached her."

The Illusive man took a lazy puff from his cigarette and started talking calmly, "I was suspicious that the Collectors were actively looking for you. I might've leaked your activities to the right alliance channels and spread the rumour that you were heading for Horizon. The alliance jumped at that immediately, and the collectors did as well. It would've been impossible for you to deal with the Collectors without the GARDIAN turrets, so I say things didn't turn out too badly."

"They think we're working _with_ the Collectors!" Shepard shouted.

"You're not focusing on the important things, Commander. Now we know more about them than ever before. We have confirmed that they work with the Reapers, we know they are using their tech, and much more. This was the first time a Collector attack was repelled, even if we lost half the colonists. I told you I would not allow them to gather strength in their inactivity, and with no other way to predict their next attack, we had to make sure one happened somewhere we could retaliate."

Shepard chuckled once in frustration, "It's not your best interest keeping me in the dark," her tone was menacing.

Immediately, the Illusive man responded, annoyance in his voice, "Then I'll be clear, Shepard. I have pooled all my resources into learning as much as we can from them. We need to find a way to cross the Omega 4 relay and stop them at all costs. We _don't_ have the luxury of looking back over the consequences of our actions if it means the mission could fail. Your team must be strong and full of resolve, or your chances of surviving an attack on the Collectors _will_ be non-existent," the Illusive man leaned back and waived a dismissive hand, "Finish building up your team. I'll call you if I find anything of interest."

And with that, the call was cut off. The lights in the Comms room lit up and the table emerged from underneath the floor as Shepard backed off, her heart racing with rage.

* * *

 **So that was chapter 3! Hope you enjoyed it!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4! Enjoy!All characters in this fanfic belong to Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Jane walked out of the communications room, her hands shaking and her heart racing. She didn't want to look at Jeff in that state and she was in no mood for humour. Activating her omnitool, she spoke to it, "Jeff, set a course for Illium. When will we be there?"

A moment went by before Joker's response. The audio played through her translator, "We'll be arriving tomorrow after lunch, Commander, 1500 SCT."

She thanked the pilot and called the elevator to the CIC. As soon as the doors whooshed closed, it sped down to the cargo hold. There was a certain krogan that had to be woken up, and she was in the perfect mind-set to react if it turned out to be dangerous.

…

Lounge music played within the starboard lounge. Garrus, Kasumi and Jacob sat at the sofa, looking out to the FTL light-show. Bottles clinked as Nicolas prepared drinks, Hal aiding him through his translator. The human walked over to the sofa, offering the drinks on a tray. When each had taken their own, he walked briskly to the bar to get his own and sat on the sofa.

After a long sip, Jacob broke the silence with a satisfied ahhhh. He looked at his drink, admiring the colour and taste, then frowned, "What a nightmare of a mission."

"Tell me about it," Kasumi took a large gulp from her glass, "It'll be a week before I have full mobility on my arm."

"At least you'll be good by Monday. I can't stop thinking about the thousands of people that the Collectors were able to get away with," Jacob muttered, eyes closed and his forehead pressed against the glass' wall.

"If the Collectors hadn't gotten away, the colonists would've been casualties anyway," Nicolas mused, "the GARDIAN lasers aren't exactly sticks and stones."

"You can be a real downer when you want to, you know?" Jacob eyed Nicolas, a tinge of bitter humour in his tone.

"I'm just agreeing the mission was a nightmare," Baker shrugged as he took another sip. He looked at the turian, whom had remained silent, "What's the matter, Garrus? Cat got your tongue?"

He looked at Nicolas blankly, chewing with an empty mouth. He suddenly blinked twice, having understood the human expression, "I'm just thinking," he muttered, "I used to think I knew Williams. She's changed so much."

Nicolas looked down at his drink, pursing his lips, "Yeah. She was unrecognizable. The things she said…"

"Not like skullface is the worst thing I've been called, it's just the tone," Garrus took a sip and smacked his lips, savouring the liquor, "We fought together, we had each other's backs," he paused, "We respected each other."

The rest nodded, agreeing with the turian. The stars whizzed by behind the edges of the mass effect lights as they drank.

…

"Very well Shepard. The activating switch is on the side. The consequences of waking it up are yours to bear." EDI's voice crackled as she left the speakers in the room.

Jane walked to the side and used her omnitool to interface with the tank. A small beep signalled the activation sequence, and the glass disappeared into the tank's base as the nutrient rich liquid's level diminished. When the level was below its knees, an audible high pitched hum, like a defibrillator charging went off from within the krogan. It woke up as latches released its armour, letting it fall. The alien stopped his fall, gripping on to the edge of the tank. Shepard took a step back to see what it would do, hand on her thigh holster.

Without warning, the krogan charged at Shepard, slamming her against the far wall and pinning her up by the shoulders. He inched closer to her face and took a short breath, "You. Human… Female. Before you die I need a name."

Shepard's heart beat with rage. She wasn't about to be threatened in her own ship. She tilted her head to the side, concentrating on the space right in front of her, within the krogan's head. Biotically, she elevated the mass of the alien's connection between its brains and the rest of the nervous system. The tank-born grunted as it let go of her and it dropped to its knees twitching, under a pain that paralysed it.

"I'm Commander Shepard, and I don't take threats lightly," she pulled her shotgun out of its location on the small of her back and extended it, resting the barrel on the krogan's head before letting her biotics die down, "I suggest you relax."

The krogan panted as its eyes scanned its surroundings, understanding the situation. It spoke again, in more complete sentences, "Not your name, mine. Okeer's words… they taught me to talk, move, eat, kill, but they failed to give me purpose. His words are hollow, his implant failed. Warlord, Legacy… Grunt… it was one of the last words he transmitted through the tank. It has no meaning. It'll do," Grunt looked up at the commander and barred its teeth, "I am Grunt. If you are worthy of your command, destroy me."

"Why do you want me to kill you?" she arched an eyebrow.

"Want? I do what I am meant to- fight and reveal the strongest. The tank never asked what I _wanted_. Okeer tried to instil purpose in me, but I have no interest in his enemies or his clan. Without a purpose that is mine, any fight is as good as the other. My first was against you and I failed. The strongest has been revealed, my purpose has been served."

"I activated you. Had it not been for me, you'd be dead inside that tank, still on Korlus. Follow my command and you will have purpose. My enemies are strong. Everyone on this ship has earned their place. If you want purpose, you can stay," she removed the safety on her shotgun, "or I can just do what you ask and get rid of you once and for all."

"This is… this is acceptable. I will fight for you, Shepard," Grunt's voice rumbled after some thought.

"I'm glad you saw reason," she fake-smiled as she put the safety back on the shotgun and collapsed it.

"If your enemies are at least as strong as you, then my judgment will have been correct. I look forward to fighting alongside you," Grunt spoke as he looked around, now standing. He walked along the room's walls and asked, "Is this my place?"

"It is if you want. Your tank was going to stay here the remainder of the mission, so you might as well use this as your quarters."

The krogan nodded, "Fair."

Having nothing more to say, Shepard walked out of the room, heading for the elevator. She started feeling remorse for using her biotics to incapacitate the krogan. _He was just waking up, you could've talked him down._ The elevator dinged as it arrived, and she chose to go further down to the cargo deck, where Garrus had layed out his obstacle course.

…

He tripped on the way out of the starboard observation room, cursing under his breath. The flanged chuckle of Garrus carried through the doorway, "Don't let the door getcha, broomhead!"

Nicolas smiled to himself as he went to the bathroom, the buzz from the drinks starting to set in. Hal's signature crackle came to his translator, "So remember that time I was thinking of modifying your prosthetics?"

Baker laughed, unzipping his pants, "That was a loooong time ago, Hal. Tell me, what do you have in mind?"

"Well, I had more spare computing power during the time I spent with Garrus, and I was able to design compact mods that would just replace pre-existing parts of the prosthetics you already have."

"Like what kind of mods are we talking about?"

"Oh, you know," Hal waited half a second, "anti-EMP measures, hidden weapons, the whole shebang."

"The whole she-what?"

Hal stuttered for the first time, "Nothing, something humans u-used to say. Just tell the rest you are going to the cargo hold or they're going to miss you."

…

Shepard jumped with ease past the kodiak's roof to land on the opposite edge. She panted as she wiped sweat off her brow, frowning at the realization that she wasn't getting any more tired. The door to the cargo hold whooshed open as Nicolas walked in, making a bee line for the workbench on the opposite wall, eyes drowsy.

"I can smell the alcohol from here!" Shepard smiled as she yelled with a teasing tone.

Baker jumped, startled. He whispered something, probably to Hal before looking at Jane, "Garrus spilled some on me, that must be why!"

With a chuckle, she jumped off the Kodiak, "I bet that is exactly why. What brings you to the cargo hold?"

He alternated between looking at the workbench and at the approaching commander, "I have some ideas for my prosthetics."

Hal switched over to Shepard's translator, "He means _my ideas_." Shepard rolled her eyes and her smile widened.

"What were you doing? Horizon wasn't exercise enough?"

Jane snorted bitterly, "I talked with the Illusive douche. He was extra bitchy this time. Thought it'd be good to tire the annoyance away, but these _fucking_ cybernetics," she gestured at her legs, "they won't let me get tired."

Nicolas shrugged, "Then try something else. Talking about it might help! Wanna join as we help Hal with his creations?"

...

"... and since tensile carbon fibre is an electromagnetic isolator, EMPs have no effect."

Both Shepard and Nicolas had been observing the fabricator mesmerized as it printed out the dark grey muscle. Nicolas raised his head to address the air around him, "Yeah, but no hard plating. Can't it be more resistant?"

"If you want it to fit inside the armour, then no. Just do like the rest and don't get shot in the same place twice."

Shepard tried in vain to hold back her laughter as Nicolas retrieved the piece in silence and attached it with Jane's help.

"It's like that time after Noveria, when you got your foot melted," she half smiled as the memories came back.

"Yeah, they got us good that time. Garrus also got his plates that day."

"Oh, yeah. They were those white ones, or I think they were white."

Nicolas didn't have anything to add so he remained silent. Jane looked at him as he frowned, his eyes wide with concentration as the prosthetic arm started to take shape once more. The muscle plates made the arm look like a chrome skeleton hidden under black leaves and apart from the anatomy of the hand, it didn't look human. Her mind went back to Noveria once more, images of Wrex joining her side by a chemical fire, ice melting off his armour as he ate rations she had given him, "Ashley never really changed," she murmured with lament.

"I like to think she did, but she had no one to blame for losing the Normandy and anything that's happened since then, so she's taking it out on us and the other races."

"Why are you so calm about it?" Jane asked, looking to get Nicolas to stop looking at the arm and make eye contact.

"We've got stuff to do, and where we're going there is no place for her. Whether she had been nice or a dick makes no difference," he smiled sadly and gave her a paused look before going back to the modifications.

The hours went by as the two worked silently, with Hal whispering instructions through their translators. Members of the crew walked by every once in a while to tend to their duties and switch between the day and night shifts, and the ship tremored as it exited a zero-mass tunnel to enter the next.

…

Shepard took a step back as Nicolas twisted his last leg into place. The servos whirred like an expanding gun as they calibrated themselves to his sensory input. A button on the ankle glowed, showing where the switch for the hidden weapon's compartment was.

"Well, that was therapeutic," she sighed as she massaged her hands, surprisingly sore from hours of work. Nicolas yawned and she arched an eyebrow, "Is it late?"

"Let me check…" Nicolas raised his arm to wake the omnitool but Hal butted in.

"0300 SCT. Maybe you should get some sleep."

Jane puffed up her cheeks before letting the air out in tired puff, "I think I'll have to sleep in past breakfast."

Baker chuckled and hopped off the workbench to head for the elevator. Once the two were inside, he spoke up, "Hope you got to distract yourself from the whole Illusive Man thing."

"I did, Nicolas," she smiled as Nicolas walked out onto the crew deck, his hands in his pockets, "good night."

…

"Nos Astra port, this is Normandy SR-2 requesting permission to land," Joker spoke over the intercom with a relaxed, practiced voice. It was a few moments before an affirmative response with landing instructions came back.

"Huh. I expected something more like Noveria, this being the Terminus economic capital," Joker scratched his head. Jane, who had been standing behind him, turned around silently and went to the airlock, where Garrus and Nicolas stood waiting.

"Alright, as you know already, the rest of the crew will go on shore leave while we find out where the Drell might be," she stood with her hands on her hips, relaxed.

Nicolas snorted, "I'm a bit tired, can't I get shore leave as well?"

The turian frowned at the comment, "If we're going to be gathering intel on this Drell assassin it's not recommendable to be a noticeable group of people. I bet we could manage fine without you as well, broom head."

"Out of all of us, only Nicolas has come to Illium before. Jack doesn't count, she's anything _but_ inconspicuous," Jane pursed her lips.

"Maybe Lawson has been here. She could replace Baker."

"I don't know how long this is going to take, so I don't know if I'll be able to stand her," Jane chuckled, "Maybe Jacob would be-"

"Guys, I was joking. I'm up for this," Nicolas let his hands clap against his thighs as he bounced on the balls of his feet in play frustration.

"Well then stop fussing around," Garrus looked at him clicking his mandibles with annoyance. Shepard chuckled as the airlock started pressurizing.

…

An asari was waiting for the new arrivals outside the airlock. She stood idly looking at her datapad as the armoured and armed squad got within earshot, "Welcome to Nos Astra port. Your docking fees have been covered for an indefinite time, so enjoy your stay. Ms. T'soni sends her regards."

Garrus' mandibles widened in shock. Shepard blinked twice, "Ms. T'soni? Where can I find her?"

"She should be at her office. I can forward her address if you wish."

With a quick nod, the location was sent and the squad walked into the city at a brisk pace. Garrus was now frowning, processing the new information. Nicolas spoke up, "Maybe Liara knows something about the Drell. It feels like she was expecting us."

"Weird that the Illusive Man didn't give me her dossier, I wonder why she's not available." Jane eyed Garrus as they walked.

The turian made a concerned face that looked like he was pursing his lips, "Hopefully… because she's busy."

…

"I apologize, Ms. T'soni is unavailable. She was expecting your arrival though, and left this for you," a formally dressed asari with iridescent crests as she handed a small data drive to Shepard before diverting her attention back to the terminal in front of her. She spoke once more without taking her eyes off the screen, "certainly, she will contact you as soon as she has the opportunity."

The squad nodded and left, a general feeling of being upset and annoyed.

"I guess the Illium lifestyle got to Liara," Nicolas muttered as they walked away from the address they'd been led to, "what does the drive contain?"

"A note. I guess it was too dangerous to send through the extranet," Shepard mused as she opened the message.

 _Shepard, it was too dangerous to send this through the extranet, too many possibilities of interception._

The three chuckled, their moods fixed.

 _I am aware you've come to extract a drell assassin. I know where you can find him, but obviously I can't tell you through here, as I'd risk the failure of his mission. I trust you'll let him finish his job, so go to the Apothecary Bar close to the docks and find Ruvisa R'sanas. She knows where the drell should be for the time being. Best of luck, we'll talk later._

"Well, looks like we have a lead. Let's head for the Apothecary," Garrus seemed pepped up at getting at least a snippet of Liara's rhetoric.

The bar's name rung a bell in Nicolas' head.

...

"Hold up! You and the turian can be in here, but he's banned for life," a turian bartender exclaimed as he pointed at Nicolas, then at a wall behind him with various security camera close-ups of different patrons that had caused problems at the bar.

Shepard shot Nicolas a questioning look before nodding at the turian as Baker turned to leave. He chuckled to himself lighting a cigarette. Memories of running from the turian mercenary accompanied by Tali and the other quarian kid flooded his mind.

"It's been ages," he muttered as he took a long drag, resting against the wall, looking at the sky car traffic above. Patrons came and went as Nicolas smoked, his face blank and relaxed as he went over all the events that had transpired since he first met Hal.

"Alright, we're off, Nicolas," Shepard interrupted his trip down memory lane as she exited the bar followed by Garrus, who was eyeing the human.

"I tested the glasses here and they seemed pretty solid. How badly did you fuck up the turian?" Garrus asked.

"He was able to walk out of the bar and try to shoot us as we left, so maybe they were softer back then. Anyways, what did you guys find out?"

"The drell, Thane is his name, will make the hit today, at the top of a building brimming with security instructed to kill anything that goes in it. The neighbouring building has more sparse security, but we'll have to cross a heavily guarded bridge to get to the target once we get to the top."

Nicolas eyed Shepard as they walked, "and why would we want to be where the target is?"

"Because our hitman is liable to disappear after making the hit. We're going to head for the ship and pick up stealth gear. Sonic dampeners, silenced weapons and urban armour. We'll head to the building straight away. I don't want to miss our chance to get Thane, we won't have time later."

...

The armoury's door whooshed open as booted feet clacked inside. Jacob turned to face the new arrivals and smirked, "I had the feeling you guys might've come back for some lighter gear."

Garrus and Nicolas started looking around at the wide selection of equipment the armoury had, while Shepard just rested a hand on her hip and addressed the Cerberus operative, "we're gonna need stealth gear for this one, otherwise we'd be outnumbered pretty quickly."

Jacob hummed to himself, "if you want real stealth, I wouldn't recommend lethal force. Do you want stun guns and tasers?"

Nicolas answered over his shoulder, a silenced pistol in his hand, "I think we're on a bit of a time constraint, and taking the time to stun our guys could be off the table."

Jane nodded, "by stealth I mean more like I want to get in quiet but not necessarily leave like that..."

The agent nodded with a chuckle, "Ah! So you want your little firefights to be self contained. Well that's easier!" he walked over to a cabinet as he talked, twiddling his fingers before opening a drawer, 'I'd recommend chaff grenades to cut off their short range radios, maybe you can even monitor their radio for callsigns in case you have to speak for them."

Hal crackled to life in Shepard's translator, "I can take care of that." She smiled and looked at Nicolas, who had a knowing look in his eyes. The two winked at each other as Jacob continued with his list of suggestions.

Nicolas marvelled at his new loadout. The first thing that was different was his armour. It was a light weave armour suit covered in a slightly oversized layer of thick, coarse grey fabric that creased in triangular patterns. The fabric was invisible to radar and radiated heat through the boot's soles, making it room temperature and undetectable by heat sensitive instruments. His weapons now had a suppressing module attached. It would create a tunnel of low mass in front and inside the barrel of the gun, creating a vacuum, eliminating all noise from the gun and most of the supersonic crack that the projectile created. Finally, the sonic dampeners were little adhesive boxes that would stick on a surface and would vibrate opposite to the sound that reaches the surface it is stuck on. This would make the surface block all sounds coming towards it.

The squad left the armoury and headed for the kodiak in the lower decks. Hal interfaced with the vehicle and with a quick goodbye to Joker, they were off to the location where the drell assassin's target was.

...

The streets of Nos Astra shone sterile white under the elevated urban street lights. The sky was alive with the aerial traffic and the lights of skyscrapers reaching for the skies, obscuring the blackish orange sky in blue-black buildings. A kodiak broke off the highway and landed in front of a glass-covered tower. It's identical neighbour was open but this one was behind a plastic wall, showing that renovations were being made.

A figure sat atop the inhabited skyscraper, prying open a ventilation grate leading to the top level of the building. The agile hands of the drell laid the metallic grate on the floor without making a sound as he readied himself to slide into the chute. The sound of an approaching sky car made him stop and look. The kodiak flew around the skyscrapers, landing one block further down into the fast asleep district. Three figures rounded a corner, and the optics on the drell's facemask whirred as they zoomed in. He made out two humans and a turian before his photographic memory filled his mind's eye with information.

 _Shepard, Jane. Hero of the citadel. KIA two years ago. Vakarian, Garrus. Archangel in Omega. MIA two weeks ago. Baker, Nicolas._

 _500,000 credits. 750,000 alive._

" _It would be enough to get you to relax for quite a while, if you accept," the defiance in her blue eyes was palpable._

" _I shall think it through more thoroughly."_

The drell snapped out of the memories and wondered why a dead commander was approaching _his target_ with a dead turian and his next contract. They _had_ to know about him. Nassana Dantius couldn't possibly be of interest to them. He looked at the group until they had climbed over the desolated building's barrier.

...

The squad drew their guns as soon as they understood their surroundings in the dark of the building's ground floor. Five salarian workers lay dead in the building's main hall, gunshot wounds peppering their clothes.

"Looks like they stopped the renovations," Shepard muttered into her radio as she scanned the ground floor followed by Baker and Vakarian.

Nicolas scoffed as he went by the salarians, "they were civilians. How can someone do this and probably get away with it, yet I get banned for life from a bar after defending myself from a hitman?"

Garrus hummed, "maybe you didn't pay for your drink?"

The human shook his head as they entered a stairwell leading up, "I'm pretty sure the guy was buying."

"Alright guys, focus. It's pretty apparent that the mercs will shoot on sight, let's act like it," Shepard said as she shook her head good-naturedly.

They went up the stairs, keeping an eye on their radar feeds as they went from floor to floor in silence. Shepard instinctively stopped when Hal talked to her through her translator, the other two halting and waiting patiently behind her.

"I'm picking up short-range radio chatter. It's the mercs, but they seem to be at ease. I'll listen in, If you give me enough time, maybe I can generate idle speech from them in case there is someone higher up listening," the AI mused before going silent.

Jane went over the situation, _the building has a closed surveillance network, which is organised into 5-level blocks. If Hal can pick up chatter, we are not more than 3 levels away, which means that the corresponding surveillance block will be coming up. Nicolas can hack into the network and give Hal access to it._ She turned around to address the turian and the human, "Alright, we're within three levels of a group of mercs. Nicolas, I need you to take point and find us a way into the CCTV for the block that's coming up. We'll be right behind you."

Baker nodded and walked up the next flight of stairs, exiting into the level silently. He activated his omnitool and scanned the walls for data feeds. When he found it, it was only a matter of probing with some omnigel prongs and finding the cable that belonged to the CCTV network for Hal to patch himself in. The AI talked to Shepard once more, "There are 8 mercs on the next level. There are more on the level after that, so a noise dampener will be needed on the ceiling. I marked the most convenient walls to put dampeners on as well."

With a nod, Shepard opened her omnitool and showed Garrus the locations. She then asked Nicolas to set a couple of Chaff charges and await further instructions. Once she was alone, she went over a plan with Hal's help.

...

Jane looked through the eye not behind her scope, finding her designated target, "Alright, Nicolas, blow the chaffs. We fire in 3... 2... 1..."

A mercenary thought he heard something like a flap of wings on the far side of the building. He turned around to see an almost invisible cloud of silver dust spreading. Quickly deactivating his suit's speakers, he started approaching and exclaiming over close range radio, "Something is happening, probable intruders. Hello?" He was about to check his radio when the tell-tale thwip of a silenced round filled the room, "Hostiles, hostiles on level 5! Shit, long range's gone too!"

The mercenary opened his visor and ran for cover behind a structural pillar. Across the floor, he made out two other mercs, standing back to back, looking for the enemy. He waved at them and when he got their attention, a round went through each of their heads. He cursed under his breath before he was also shot from behind.

Jane checked the suppression system on her rifle as Garrus went to the sound dampeners to pop them off the walls for use in another level. Nicolas searched for the next place where the CCTV was hackable from his omnitool and Hal was making the finishing touches on his procedurally generated radio chatter.

"If the next groups of mercs are this easy to take down, we'll reach the top in no time," she sighed as she got up and made for the far stairwell, where Garrus and Nicolas stood waiting.

…

"There is a lone merc up ahead. He's on the radio with someone… he's talking with someone at a higher level. Maybe we should wait until his call's over," Hal spoke to Shepard, who relayed what he said to the other two.

Garrus set a sound dampener on the door going to the merc's room and opened it slowly. The enemy was around a corner, pacing up and down as he talked. Garrus crept up to the corner and planted another dampener, to keep any noise from going past the wall, further towards their goal. The mercenary's call was over and he let his back fall against a wall. To his surprise, his armour didn't make a sound when it impacted on the wall. He immediately realized something was wrong and expanded his handgun before creeping up to the corner that obscured the rest of the room.

As the merc's handgun poked around the corner, the handle of a pistol impacted against the his visor, shattering one of the helmet's shining yellow eyes. The whirring of servos filled the air as a swift and heavy punch was delivered to the other side of the visor, shattering the second eye and whipping the merc's head back. Nicolas caught up to the enemy, who had been stumbing back and gave him a heavy kick to the chest, launching him to a giant window overlooking the street some 70 levels down. The pane cracked as his back made contact and before the merc could come to his senses, Nicolas' pistol was jammed under his neck. Jane and Garrus had formed up on Baker's sides with their guns drawn.

Jane started shouting as soon as the merc made a small gasping sound, "Alright, dipshit. Two options, you tell us everything you know about the guards on the way up, or we see how well humans fly."

Garrus shot the window behind him out to illustrate Shepard's point, and Nicolas grabbed onto the chin of the merc's helmet to avoid him falling.

"So are we going to do things the easy way?" Shepard arched an eyebrow and smirked playfully, "Of course, I don't have all day, so I'll give you to the count of three to cooperate."

"No need, no need!" the merc shook his hands in the air, his knees bent to avoid having to rest all his weight on Nicolas' grip, even if Baker was pushing his chin back to keep the merc's centre of gravity between uncomfortable and alarming, "my boss sent us our patrols ahead of time in one file. Here! You can have it."

Hal assured Shepard that he'd corroborate what they'd seen up to now with the file the merc had given them. After a few seconds, Hal announced that he trusted the mercenary's material. Garrus pulled him in to the safety of the floor and smacked him on the back of the head, dazing him before tossing his omnitool and guns out the window and destroying his radio.

…

Jane frowned as she looked at Nicolas' omnitool. He'd poked a small camera under the door leading to the bridge connecting the two buildings. Nassana Dantius, and by consequence, the assassin Thane Krios were waiting on the other side. She turned from the holographic screen to the squad, "Alright, we won't have the option to isolate Nassana from the noise without getting caught, so we can't allow the enemy to fire a shot. To do that, we have to avoid them seeing us directly and block their short range radio. We'll silence this door and once we open it, Garrus will take out anyone who is closest to us _silently_. I'll plant a dampener on the floor as soon as we open the door, so have that in mind, Garrus. Nicolas, once Garrus has neutralised the merc outside, you'll toss a chaff so they can't communicate. From there we spread out onto the bridge and take cover as soon as possible. Take as few shots as you can, and remember, don't get caught."

The two nodded and readied themselves as Shepard planted the first dampener on the door itself. After a short countdown, Garrus flung the door wide open and took one long step forward which left him right behind a mercenary. He felt the vibration of his step fade to nothingness as Shepard planted the second dampener and grabbed the mercenary by the visor. With unprecedented strength, he drove the merc's head to the floor. The helmet buckled silently and the human went limp without a sound. The turian pulled him behind cover as Jane and Nicolas spread out.

Baker jogged around a corner silently, bumping headfirst into an eclipse mercenary. Before he could make a noise though, he was punched by Nicolas' prosthetic, making him twirl around to have his back facing Baker. He snaked his normal arm around the merc's chest to hold him in place as the other arm came around and held onto his jaw, quickly pulling it to the side with a muffled crack.

The final mercenary stood with his back against a crate, not understanding why his radio wasn't working and all his colleagues had disappeared. With trembling hands, he used his assault rifle to scan the bridge. A few seconds later, he noticed his armour wasn't making noise as it hit the floor or the wall behind him and a small tap on his shoulder startled him before a kick was delivered to his side, making him stumble. Before he could find his footing, he was able to see a woman in grey armour standing before him for a split second. His visor was immediately shattered as the woman used an assault rifle as a baseball bat to whack him.

"Is he still alive?" Shepard asked as Nicolas walked over.

Nodding, Nicolas cuffed the mercenary and destroyed his radio. The squad then made their way to the far wall, where a large door led to the opposite building's top floor, where Nassana was. Nicolas stuck his camera under the door once more and the squad watched the video feed closely.

The asari paced up and down the room, seemingly berating the people she had in there with them. They were all armed to the teeth, inspecting the room, perhaps looking for surveillance equipment. It was easy to see Nassana was expecting someone to harm her.

"Hey, look at the far corner," Garrus whispered alarmed as he came closer, towering over the other two. Nicolas moved the camera slightly to see a figure laying on the ground. A merc fell on the other side of the camera's field of view, then three more, then another until Nassana was alone. Before the squad could make sense of what was going on, a dark shadow dropped from the ceiling behind Nassana and a gunshot pierced the silence, permeating through the door behind which they had been hiding.

Jane expanded her assault rifle and stormed the room, followed by the other two. She trained her sights on the Drell standing in front of the conference table, Nassana resting on it in front of him. They had found Thane Krios.

Thane stood with his hands folded over the dead asari. He heard the expansion of three firearms and then felt the prickle on the back of his neck he always felt when someone had a gun trained on him. He wanted to address the newcomers but at the moment he was busy.

Shepard took a step closer to the Drell, who seemed to be ignoring them, "I was hoping we could have a little chat."

"I apologize, but prayers for the wicked must not be forsaken," with that, the alien resumed his dead silence, his hands held together in front of him and his eyes closed.

"Do you really think she deserves it?" the commander lifted an arm towards the dead asari, known for her corruption and ruthlessness.

"Not for her, but for me," the drell opened his eyes and turned to face the group, unfazed by their expanded weapons, "Interesting how the measure of an individual is difficult to judge by actions alone. Take you, for instance, all this destruction, this chaos, just to talk to me. Nassana doesn't seem too bad now... I was curious to see how far you'd go to find me." There was a long moment of silence. The drell shrugged slightly before continuing, "Well, here I am."

"How did you know I was coming at all?"

"I didn't. That is, until you came in the front door," the alien's eyes drifted from Jane to Baker and he nodded slowly, "with my next contract."

Jane arched an eyebrow and crossed her arms, "You know you won't be able to get the bounty on his head, right?"

"It is irrelevant at this point, you can obviously protect him from me, and if I fail, someone else will take my place. Anyways, you wouldn't have gone to all this trouble without good reason, perhaps something interesting will be said. I wanted to see my last target up close, and you wanted to talk face to face. So talk."

Shepard gestured the team to lower their weapons.

"Human colonies are going missing. We know the Collectors are behind it and we're putting a stop to it," she explained the mission they had embarked on, stressing that once the Collectors had done what they wanted with the humans, there was no telling what race they would terrorize next. She finished by forwarding the Illusive man's contract and its executive summary, which Thane scanned over quickly.

"Interesting, that a human supremacist group would take on an issue of supposed Galactic importance," Thane said as he eyed the commander, signing the contract on his own omnitool.

"We've come across enough evidence to know they're working for the Reapers. The Council won't listen to anything that mentions their name, so we know we're alone. For the same reason, it's good to have you on board, Thane," Jane smirked as she extended a hand to the Drell, who shook it firmly.

…

The newest member of the crew was quick to excuse himself to his new room. The Life Support room was the driest and coolest section of the ship, making it compatible with a terminal illness the assassin had. It took the squad a long time to realize he was gone, but Kasumi saw him back away immediately and was quite entertained by the rest of the group's lack of perception as they looked around with bewildered faces minutes after the fact.

The Normandy had quieted down. Everyone from the day-shift had hurriedly gone to sleep after coming back from eventful shore leaves. Aside from the skeleton crew of the night shift and Joker snoring at the pilot seat, everyone was asleep. In the starboard lounge, on the long couch, was Nicolas sleeping. He stirred with a bewildered gasp when his omnitool came to life whistling a tone that he hadn't programmed. With a flick of his wrist, the display showed a text box with a short message:

 _Mr. Baker, I have something to discuss with you. If you could come to the communications room as soon as possible, that would be great._

 _The Illusive Man_

Drowsily, he snorted as he thought, _even the 'man' gets a capital M._

Baker shook off the last remnants of sleep that were holding onto his brain on the elevator down. The CIC looked almost cosy in the night-shift lighting and sleepiness threatened to take over him again as the lights in the communications room dimmed to allow for the holographic call to be made.

Nicolas had never seen the Illusive man before, but it was easy to know who he was talking to when the connection had been established, "You wanted to discuss something?"

The man sitting on the holographic chair took a drag from his cigarette before talking, "Indeed, but it would be better if we were both equally comfortable. Why don't you sit? I heard you smoke as well, feel free to do it. The ventilation system on that deck is of the best quality."

Nicolas sat down on a seat that had emerged from the floor behind him. Taking his box of cigarettes out of his fatigues, he took a puff and frowned quizzically at the hologram in front of him their eyes level, "Now that I feel at home, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"The mission at hand. You already know about the probabilities of returning alive, and I'm certain you are aware that in each of your contracts there is a clause that makes it possible to obtain Cerberus equipment and funds for any unfinished business you may have before going through the Omega 4 relay."

Nicolas took a long drag, annoyed at the man's condescending tone, "I am aware."

"Well, the thing is," the illusive man blew out a big cloud of smoke that intermittently materialised in the hologram, "I have a good idea of what the other crewmembers might want to get done, but you haven't expressed the need to tie any loose ends during your time in the Normandy."

"You should at least buy me a drink before you get close enough to me that you can tell me what i have or haven't expressed."

The Illusive man ignored him and continued, "Perhaps there are friends from the past you would like to speak to, or family-"

"Don't act like you haven't been going through my history. You know fucking well that I don't have family, and I have no friends from recent years," Nicolas had stood up and blew his smoke on the hologram, making it shake and glitch as it readjusted to the variant refraction coefficients.

The man smirked, having gotten a reaction from Baker, "Maybe you'd like to get revenge on someone. I heard there was a price on your head, quite steep if you ask me. Might be good to get that out of the way before thinking of having a calm life once the mission is over."

The younger human sagged back down on the chair and took a long drag, his fingers shaking at the memory of Aria and this possibility the Illusive man was offering, but it was too good to be true, "You can't offer me something like that. It isn't possible."

"If you give me-"

"No. Aria's not one to let an issue go. That bounty on my head will stay until either she is dead or I am handed over."

The Illusive man was about to start talking once more when Nicolas cut off the connection and walked out of the communications room. The head of Cerberus didn't call again.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Until the next one!**

 **PS: thank you, RFP for letting me know there were no scene cuts! Tried using the app to upload the final draft of the chapter and everything seemed fine but it looks like italics and such things don't cross over.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5! Enjoy! All characters in this fanfic belong to Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

"Commander," EDI's synthesized voice filled Jane's room. The commander woke up with a start and hurled the soft sheets off herself, as if she'd overslept for an important meeting. EDI continued unfazed, "Ms. T'soni has sent a message labelled as urgent."

"Liara?" Shepard blinked as she collected her thoughts, the lasts remnants of her dreams scrambling back to her subconscious, "What time is it, EDI?"

"It is 06:15 SCT, I assumed that if the message was urgent then you could wake up half an hour before your alarm."

Shepard frowned at the blue spherical hologram at her bedside with drowsy eyes, "If it were that urgent, I bet she would've called. Wake up Garrus and tell him to get dressed for a quick breakfast, we're gonna go visit Liara."

…

"Shepard," Garrus mumbled as he chewed on a cereal bar. A big glass of ice-cold juice resting in front of him as Jane sat next to him, a steaming coffee in her hands, "Did Liara say what she wanted?"

"Only to go meet her at her office as soon as possible, why?"

The turian chewed on his cereal bar pensively, then spoke slowly, as if making sure his reasoning was sound, "If she didn't say much, she's probably being monitored. Whoever is monitoring her might act violently if she does something strange. Us going into her office is definitely strange, so maybe we should go in armour instead of fatigues?"

"We're only going to her office," Jane became silent as she gave it more thought, "Actually you're right. Let's go suit up."

…

"Ms. T'soni has been expecting you, go right in," the asari receptionist extended a hand towards a door further in, her eyes glued to her screen.

Liara smiled at Shepard and Garrus with worried eyes, "I'm glad you could come on such short notice. Please sit."

"We were wondering what was going on if you wanted us here this early."

As soon as they'd sat down, the asari started talking about new weapons technologies being researched and industry prices falling. Jane and Garrus exchanged looks before their eyes fell on Liara's hands. She was writing a note by hand on a sheet of paper in front of her. As she continued talking, she turned the page for Shepard to read the message written in common.

 _We are probably being listened in on. The Illusive Man has sent me data that could contain the Shadow Broker's location. There is too much of it for me to sift through, so I sent it to an associate of mine. He'll mine it for the location. I wouldn't have asked you here unless I had to. The Broker has a friend of mine hostage, and I intend to get him back. As payment for the information I received, I have to bring you with me._

Liara finished her monologue on the weapon's industry as Shepard finished reading, "and the most convenient thing to do would be to anticipate the change in Chord-Hislop's market share."

Jane looked at the asari, the look of innocence and inexperience she remembered from the days when they were chasing Saren across the Galaxy were gone. Liara's eyes had darkened, they had a tinge of terminal tiredness but an energy visible in the eyes of a large predator about to pounce. Blue capillaries crept around the edges of her eyes, giving them a light-blueish tinge and making her look a bit more alien to Jane. She blinked, processing everything she'd read, "So what happens now?"

"We can go celebrate, it'll take me a few hours to round up the funds to buy the shares," she got up from her chair and tilted her head to the door, "Shall we?"

…

Nicolas shook the moisture off his beard as he walked out of the bathroom for some breakfast. Shepard had called Joker a few minutes ago to notify the crew that another day of shore leave was in effect. After a quick cup of tea and a protein bar, he was on the way to the airlock. Maybe something fun would be happening at Nos Astra. He was surprised to see Jack going into the airlock as he walked up the Normandy's neck. With a quick jog, he made it in before the blast door had closed. He looked at Jack, who'd crossed her arms and tapped her fingers on her biceps, impatiently waiting for the airlock to pressurize. "Up to something today?"

"Not yet. I just get bored shitless on days like this. It's never full days of shore leave so I can't really go _out out_ , and there's nothing to do in the Normandy."

"Maybe we can just buy some booze," Baker shrugged.

"That," Jack smirked at Nicolas as the blast doors opened to the port, "isn't a bad idea."

…

"Nice place you've got," Garrus murmured almost to himself as he looked up at high ceilings and ceiling to floor windows. He could barely see the glimmer of kinetic barriers outside, and the traffic of Nos Astra further out, silent behind the sound barriers.

"Information brokering in Nos Astra can be a profitable business when it isn't putting a target on the back of my head," Liara answered absentmindedly as she typed a command on a hidden console and a wardrobe with armour and weapons emerged from under her bed, "I'm barely here anyway."

Jane looked around the flat. There were prothean and other ancient artefacts standing inside thick glass cases all over the apartment. Liara definitely had a taste for those antiquities, but a glimmer brought her attention to something she wasn't expecting to find. On the top shelf of a bookcase, there was a paper picture in a minimalistic silver frame. Dust had coated it over the months or maybe years it had been there, making it contrast with the impeccable cleanliness of everything else.

Shepard walked closer to the picture and spoke up to Liara, who had started readying her armour for getting into it, "you were really selective on your cleaning method, Liara."

The asari stole a glance at Jane and quickly went back to what she was doing, "what? Oh, that. I don't really like going near it, too many memories. Dust collects so fast in this apartment! I'll have to get a new filter installed."

As she got closer, she could make out the image under the grey dust. It was a picture the crew had taken after Saren was stopped. They'd had a party at the cargo hold. She went over each crewmember with pause, feeling herself smile back at the faces of better times. Jane chuckled when she saw Liara beside Garrus, the turian towering a full head over the asari.

She turned around to look at the two when a small glassy sound tinkled over Liara's movements and a cloud of glitter filled the apartment. In a split second, Liara looked up and dove behind a pillar, "those are glass particles, we're getting shot at!" Garrus and Jane jumped behind cover as well as Liara started to shout, "put your helmets on! The glass will keep their slugs slow but the dust will kill your lungs."

More shots started coming through the glass as a humming noise started filling the room, going up in frequency until it suddenly stopped and the glass shattered.

"That was the kinetic barriers," Liara huffed, "Don't go poking your heads out."

Shepard looked at Liara who had stripped and was now clasping her armour on behind her pillar. The whole structure was getting chipped away by sniper shots coming in like rainfall. She then looked at Garrus, who had expanded his assault rifle and was looking at the front door. Finally, Liara's omnitool pinged, and with a quick look, she announced, "my contact has the data, we have to go to him!"

Garrus piped up, "I'll throw a smoke!"

The potshots stopped coming as soon as the grenade had emerged from behind the turian's pillar. Grey smoke started spraying out of it as it hissed and spun around the floor. The cloud of smoke got bigger and bigger, and now the three were getting ready to blindly feel their way to the front door when the blare of a minigun deafened them. They could see tracer rounds fly through the smoke as concrete dust and debris started gathering on the floor. The roar of bullets eating away at stone and metal made it hard to think as the three sat, frantically trying to keep their senses about them.

Garrus slapped Shepard's shoulder to get her attention, "I hacked into the CCTV. There's no one outside."

Jane nodded and shouted out, "alright, Liara, it's now or never, run for the door! Garrus, tail her, shotgun out."

...

Engineers Kenneth Donnelly and Gabriella Daniels sighed with annoyance as the engineering deck erupted with laughter coming from the deeper reaches of the ship. One floor down, where the manual overrides and crawlspaces to the inner workings of the Normandy were, there was a small stretcher bed and two bottles dangerously balanced on a round pipe accompanied by Jack and Nicolas.

"Why would they call this 'fish'? Man, society was _fucked_ before we found the relays," Jack laughed as she whirled the brown bottle in her biotics. She unscrewed the cap and took another big gulp of the brown, minty liquid. She eyed Nicolas, whose eyes were now droopy after having finished his first bottle of 'fisk', "You really have an obsession for pre-mass effect stuff."

Baker hiccupped as he smiled at the floating bottle, "it's just a time when things were more personalized. Now everything is for the masses, where before there were lots of things that some didn't like and others did. It's normal that people don't like old music, not because it's old, but because new music is _made_ so that people like it no matter their taste… or species, for that matter."

"You're just bitter and wish you were born at a different time," She nudged him on the shoulder, "you're a bitter Earther."

He arched an eyebrow and chuckled, "I was brought up in a colony, let me remind you-"

"Yeah, Eden Prime, the colony most similar to Earth, Land-hugger," Jack taunted, leaning towards Nicolas maintaining eye contact.

"Alright, that's it, I'll show you," Nicolas got up and grabbed Jack's bottle out of the air before taking a swig, "100 credits say that if we go to a random club, you'll enjoy most of the songs we hear."

"Fine, but you can't know the club either," Jack smirked as she got up, rising up to Nicolas' face before walking around his shoulder towards the elevator.

…

Alarms filled the skycar cockpit as Shepard made a rough landing, overriding the autopilot. The doors hissed open as the three got off, Liara taking the lead while deterring the guards who had started approaching.

"We meet him here. The Salarian Trade representatives have an office in the building so security's acceptable," the asari spoke quickly as they entered. Garrus and Shepard were close behind, their hands on their collapsed rifles.

The group walked briskly towards an elevator at the end of a long hall with walls of black marble, past a security checkpoint that Liara cleared them through with a quick face scan. Tens of offices covered the flanks, with high ceilings and yellowish lights hanging on thin wires. The hall seemed to be eternal as they went for the far end, when Hal's crackle came through Shepard's translator, "There's a weird person entering the building. He is very nervous and is hugging something close to himself, heading straight for security."

"Liara, are we being followed?" Shepard asked the asari as she showed her the security camera feed that Hal had just forwarded.

Her eyes went wide as she urged in a hushed tone, "Elevator, now."

They ran for the far wall as yelling started coming from the entrance. Liara called her friend as they reached the elevator and the doors closed around them silently beneath the outside's commotion.

"We're heading up, have the report ready. See you soo-" Liara shouted into her omnitool before a blast shook the building and knocked the wind out of the squad. Dust filled the entirety of the hall as a loud cracking and crumbling deafened whoever survived the explosion.

"Ms. T'soni? Ms. T'soni! I am alive and well, heading for the elevator," there was a quick-speaking creaky Salarian voice coming from the asari's omnitool.

She looked outside the elevator, seeing that the shockwave had weakened the structure. Panting, she urged her contact to stay where he was but it was too late. The ceiling collapsed, and with it came down furniture, cables, structural materials and bodies, either unconscious or dead, all tumbling into a new cloud of dust.

With a biotic push, Liara blew the elevator's doors out and jumped down into the debris, followed by Jane and Garrus. She called her contact and used her biotics to start lifting pieces of concrete and splintered desks, trying to hear a ringtone. She and Jane stopped looking when Garrus unfolded his assault rifle, frowning as he concentrated on his keen sense of hearing, "Three skycars have landed outside, no sirens. They might not be friendlies."

…

Jack and Nicolas looked over the dancefloor, taking absentminded sips from their tall glasses. The strobe combined with the UV lights made the people look surreal, shining sterile white with different fluorescent colours glowing in the deep blacks where the strobe could not reach.

"Good thing epilepsy has been treated," he remarked as he observed the crowd jumping to the beat of the hectic music.

"It might've been convenient to treat bad lighting tastes as well," Jack scoffed, taking a big gulp from her cocktail.

Baker smiled, "There's nothing wrong with a little strobe!"

Jack shook her head, slightly annoyed, "Paired with the UV? It just helps pretentious people stand out more than they should. I mean just look at that turian, his face looks like a Christmas tree!"

"Well, he _did_ get _someone's_ attention," he tilted his chin to the aforementioned alien, who was now dancing with an asari dressed in black skin tight clothes, "Hate the game, not the player."

"I _was_ hating the game, Baker, -Oh, that was fast."

The two watched with silent amusement as the new couple vanished into the male bathrooms, unnoticed under the strobes and pulsating music. Jack downed her drink and tapped Nicolas' leg under the table, "Let's go to the dancefloor, Land-hugger."

Jack swayed to the rhythm, which had now switched to a syncopated beat, slower than before. Nicolas patted his pocket happily, knowing he'd won the bet from earlier. The music went on as he started to close his eyes, losing himself to the beat when he felt a pressure on his leg. Letting his eyelids rise slowly, he saw Jack coming closer and closer, her stomach touching his before she too opened her eyes to look at him, a sultry smile tugging at her lips. With surprised eyebrows, Nicolas looked around, looking for something to comment on and distract Jack.

"The asari left the bathroom, seems like the turian is still there," he half yelled so the biotic could hear.

"Sometimes people can't keep up with those of us who are actually good at it," she commented non-chalantly, "Who cares anyway?"

Baker clenched his teeth as the biotic came closer. He could feel her breathing on his neck before she smiled teasingly and backed off. Her smile faded as she took a step forward and Nicolas could feel a biotic pull on his back. Before she could close the distance, he excused himself to the bathroom.

"Don't leave me waiting," she called as she disappeared into the crowd.

The bathroom was cleaner than any club he had ever seen before, king blue ceramic coating every surface with black marble topping the wash basins. The pissoirs were full, so Baker walked towards the far side of the stalls. The last one was locked halfway, so Nicolas knocked. He knocked again when he got no answer, and with a hiccup, he pushed on the door until the lock shifted and the stall opened. He gave a surprised chuckle when he saw the corpse of the turian, smiling like there literally was no tomorrow. With a quick inspection, he was able to see there wasn't a struggle and that he hadn't been hurt by any kind of weapon. There was no sign of poisoning, either.

"Now I just _have_ to find the asari," Nicolas murmured to himself as he moved the body over to the side and peed into the now free toilet.

He was relieved to see Jack passionately kissing another patron as he came out to the dancefloor, but his ease was put on hold when he felt the prickly sensation of being watched.

…

"I found him!" Shepard whispered into her suit's microphone as she lifted a piece of debris off a dead salarian matching the description Liara had given her. She squinted through the smoke coming from the grenade she'd dropped to cover her location from the possible hostiles that had just landed. With a grunt, she rummaged through his pockets, trying to find the OSD he was to hand over to Liara.

The noise of footsteps approached as Liara's voice crackled through her translator, "We have to be quick. Whoever is responsible for the bomb is in here with us."

"Yeah, I'll meet you guys at the entrance," Shepard whispered, but couldn't help but raise her voice when she searched the last pocket, "Got it!"

Immediately, she was biotically pushed, sending her flying through weakened concrete, out of the cloud of smoke that had covered her. Her body tumbled over the debris, eventually coming to a stop against a large piece of wall. A small piece of marble had cut above her brow, letting blood drip over her right eye, and she was caked in cement dust. Coughing and tearing up, her body tried to purge the dust as the footsteps approached again. Strong biotics pinned her to the ground as a blue hand snatched the OSD from hers before disappearing into the smoke.

Shepard jumped to her feet and sprinted for the exit, "Liara! An asari has taken the OSD. I'm headed for the entrance."

"We've got a team of mercenaries at the door, commander. Five of them huddled together," came Garrus' flanging voice through the radio.

"Well then, get ready for some potshots, Garrus, I'll be there in three seconds," with a concentrated frown, Shepard glowed blue and created a singularity above the five mercenaries, lifting them up in the air. Garrus wasted no time shooting them down one by one, the crack of the projectiles filling the hall.

"Come on, we have to catch up with whoever has the-" Liara walked past Shepard on her way to the door when she was interrupted by a biotic push coming from the entrance. The asari that had stolen the OSD had come back to finish the three, but before her push had made impact on them, Liara counteracted by creating a heavy mass between the push and the enemy.

Jane squinted to be able to look through the light distortions caused by the conflicting biotics. On the other side of the push, the asari moved her free hand to her belt, pulling something off of it, a disc, _a grenade!_

"Liara, get to cover! Let the push come through!" Jane urged.

"What are you talking about? We have to catch her!" Liara shouted, but she lost her concentration when the grenade landed at her feet and the enemy's push came through, sending her flying through the air, safe, at least, from the grenade.

The explosive went on in a flash-bang, and the squad ran for the exit as soon as they had come back to their senses. Liara stopped for a moment to see the asari flying away on a skycar before dashing for the one they used to get there, followed closely by Jane and Garrus.

"That was Tela Vasir, a Spectre," the asari shouted as she jumped into the passenger seat, "The troops she had with were wearing Shadow-Broker uniforms, so he must be paying her to protect the info."

"This must mean it's legitimate intel!" Shepard gunned the engine and sped off into the deep blue sky, in pursuit of the spectre.

…

"I see your friend is busy," the hairs on the back of Nicolas' hair stood on end as the husky voice encased his head.

He turned around to see the asari clothed in black. His temples felt like they were being massaged as her eyes pierced into his. He smiled as calmly as he could, letting his drunkenness relax his eyelids, "I was hoping she would be. Some people can be unbearable after a while."

"I feel the same. Name's Morinth, want a drink?"

He thought back to the turian, maybe he had been annoying to her, "I want more than that, but it'll do. Let's go."

Taking his hand, she weaved through the crowd, Nicolas either moving deftly between the other patrons or pushing aside the ones who got too far into his way. Before he could pay attention to where he was, they had arrived to the bar and Morinth had already captivated the attention of the barwoman. Two drinks were placed in front of them after a quick wink from her to Morinth. The asari whirled to share with Nicolas, taking a slow sip while maintaining eye contact. Baker lifted his glass and took a long gulp, making Morinth's eyes widen for half a moment in annoyance.

"Oh, it was Serrice Ice! Sorry, I should've taken a smaller sip," Nicolas raised his eyebrows in feigned surprise.

"At least you know what it is," the asari shook her head with a satisfied smile.

Baker turned to directly face the, likely, murderous alien, "Why're you acting like I don't drink?"

"Oh, I had a feeling you drunk," Morinth arched an eyebrow and leaned closer to the human and paused before tilting her head down for a moment, "what happened to your hand? I noticed one was colder.

He cracked a smile and looked down at his bare prosthetic, the silver of the joints dark under the low-light. With it, he took his glass and took a smaller, slow sip, "I was drunk for a particular job, and Omega has a way of biting you in the ass."

"I was thinking of going there. It's too clean here, too politically correct."

"We're in the Terminus," Baker chuckled, trying to be condescending.

"The VIP of the Terminus," she corrected, "It's a bunch of kingpins. Management. Nobody gets their hands dirty. I want to be there…"

Nicolas snorted, "I don't think you'd last there."

The massaging feeling on his temples increased and Morinth chuckled as she thought, _oh, you don't know what I'm capable of_.

…

"Oyl, get me the radio chatter on the rest," Tela talked to the microphone on her suit as she swerved to the left, narrowly missing a taxi. The remaining Broker forces had gone silent for a while. Her VI, Oyl scanned the frequencies for a relevant communication until it found what it was looking for:

 _Orders from the Broker. We leave Vasir and head back to base._

 _When do we break formation?_

 _Im breaking now._

"Fuck!" She slammed her fist against the dashboard, activating the air conditioning. A bead of sweat ran up her brow as she dipped to avoid the skycar Shepard was on, its thrust pushing her own car further down, where she had to dip again to avoid the oncoming traffic. Tela gasped as she let go of a breath she didn't remember taking, thinking to herself, _the broker's giving me for dead. Might as well stop here._

…

Two drinks slid over with precision to Nicolas and Morinth. His prosthetic compensated for the drunken swaying as he picked up his and clinked it to hers before taking a long sip of the sweating beer glass. His other hand came up to his forehead to brush a bead of sweat away as his neck relaxed under the asari's gaze. A blue hand landed softly on his knee, sending goose bumps radiating up from his leg.

"How about we get out of here? My drink's shit anyway," her blue eyes glowing with small pulses of biotic energy.

Baker shook his head, before squinting at the dancefloor, making eye contact with Jack. He remembered dancing with her, then the dead turian in the bathroom. With tired eyes he came back to Morinth's playful gaze. His stomach twisted into a knot and nausea invaded his mouth as the words came out of his lips, "Sorry, I don't go home with sex-murderers."

Morinth's eyes went wide as her hand shot up to his throat and his eyes went wide, unable to get out of her endless black orbs, "Look into my eyes, embrace eternit-"

A tattooed hand came into Nicolas' field of view, crashing into the blue ocean around the dark orbs, collapsing it into the face he recognized as Morinth. The tattooed hand followed through, following the face to the wooden surface of the bar. A searing pain shot through his head as he saw a strong blue glow and he was propelled through the air, the tattooed woman flying beside him. Screams erupted around the club as the two landed on soft bodies. Without warning, Nicolas was pulled up by Jack as she screamed above the clamour, "Take a booze pill, can you move?"

He blinked as she handed him the pill and she ran away. He stumbled into a jog, grabbing a sealed bottle from the bar. Cracking it open, he popped the pill and took a big swig. The burn brought him to his senses as the last remnants of the incomplete melding faded away and he was running to the club's exit, narrowly avoiding the remaining security guards. In the distance he made out Jack's bald scalp and he charged, his legs sprinting easily, unhindered by armour.

"Where is she?" Jack heard from her translator as Nicolas patched in.

"She turned to the right a block down, the bitch's going for the docks!"

"She tried to kill me by melding. Since when is that a thing?" he yelled incredulously as he passed Jack and she sped up to keep his rhythm.

"She's an ardat yakshi. They normally get sent to convents and shit. Others escape and become like this one we're after."

…

Liara, Garrus and Shepard jumped out onto the Azure hotel's parking lot. Tela's skycar had been double parked close to a wall that sealed off the hotel's courtyard. With barely hidden urgency, Liara used her biotics to float over the wall as Shepard followed the same way, albeit with a little less grace and Garrus climbed, having little trouble to vault over the obstacle.

Jane looked over the crowd until Hal highlighted the asari Spectre in her HUD. Expanding her handgun, she fired two shots into the air, effectively dispersing the crowd. Tela hesitated for a moment and she immediately knew she wasn't going anywhere. Slowly, she turned around to face the squad.

"Commander, you must know better than anyone else that working with the Broker doesn't make me bad. The information I get from him saves thousands of lives. Whatever I do to help him is just a necessary evil," Tela stalled with her hands raised.

Jane approached slowly, her weapon drawn, "You confuse working with and being a subordinate. If your boss is an enemy of the council, then your actions aren't justified."

"Hah! What a two faced _bitch_!" Tela shouted theatrically, "You think you stand on some kind of moral higher ground? Look at you, you're Cerberus' lap dog! You're working with terrorists and _dare_ tell me my actions are punishable. You forget what us Spectres do, human. We do what the council doesn't have stomach to do, and this is it!"

"Alright, we're running out of time," Liara spoke with an eerie calm before she glowed blue for a split second and biotically dashed all the way up to Tela, getting to close to be able to feel her breathing on her forehead. Before the Spectre could react, a biotically assisted uppercut made contact with her chin, launching her a metre up in the air. The Spectre flipped in the air, dropping flashbang grenades as Jane and Garrus expanded their assault rifles.

…

They caught eye of the asari a couple of gambled turns down the closed Business district and corrected their course into an empty plaza. As they gained on her, signs of life started to re-emerge along with the colossal warehouses of the port, endless and grey. They ran past armoured people of all species and they realized this part of the city was mercenary-owned. It wasn't long before one got in the way, with a gun out. Jack charged biotically at her, sending the merc flying as Nicolas pulled out his hand cannon and expanded it. Hoping his shield would hold up, they kept running behind the asari.

It wasn't long before shots began raining on them and Jack's full biotic display came out. She charged through a group of mercenaries, created a singularity and then sent a shockwave to propel it forward against another group. She began to glow blue as she levitated to a scaffold and began to climb up the side of a building. Nicolas stopped to bend his knees and leapt up, catching hold of the same scaffold and followed.

Jack emerged to the roof and started running behind Morinth, who was down in the streets. Before she could react, a bullet broke her barrier. She turned to the side and saw a mercenary with a pistol. In a flash, she expanded hers and started firing back, but another bullet whizzed through her leg, the slug expanding inside before exiting. With a grunt she fell to the ground as the merc was finished off by some well-aimed shots out of Nicolas' hand cannon.

"Just go, there's no one up here! I'll call for help."

"You sure?"

"Go, man! These guys are small fry, and my barrier's back already!" she hit his leg as she pulled out a tube of medigel.

…

Joker woke up with a start when an urgent call came in. He pulled the notification up on his holographic display and Jack's nametag came up, "Hey, sweet cheeks… I need a pickup, now."

"If you're drunk, you can get home yourself," Jeff scoffed with a smile.

"I got shot, genius. Are you sending the Kodiak or are you gonna come running?"

"I can take the Kodiak, Jeff," EDI's voice popped up as the hologram appeared.

"No you cannot!" he snapped, a small bubble of spit flying out of his mouth.

"But the Kodiak pilot is on shore leave. The co-pilot as well. Are you going to make your way to the cargo hold?" EDI questioned, making Joker's mouth snap shut.

A few moments came before Jack's voice blared through the speakers, "If I get shot one more time because of you, Joker, I'm ripping your balls off and breaking your-" she grunted as a shot rung out, "I'm breaking your kneecaps with them!"

"EDI, s-send the Kodiak," Joker stammered before squinting his eyes and palming his forehead with a careful amount of force.

…

An assault rifle round penetrated Tela's shattered leg armour. The round exploded in her leg, tearing through muscle, immediately incapacitating it. Liara dashed up to the wounded Spectre and began glowing glowed blue before putting her in a stasis field, "Help me hold her, damn it! She's too strong for me, Jane!"

Shepard was at Liara's side in a flash, assisting her stasis as Garrus approached and started looking for the OSD. Once he had it in his hands, Liara let go of the stasis, Jane following suit before the asari pushed Vasir off the roof with a shockwave. Garrus poked over the ledge and took aim at the Spectre, firing an expertly aimed headshot before she could reach the ground.

Shepard lead the team back towards the parking lot, raising a hand to her ear, she addressed the Normandy's pilot, "Joker, could you send the Kodiak for extraction?"

There was a small pause before Jeff's response came, "I'd love to, Commander, but it's occupied. Our resident insane biotic was wounded down in the ports, so she's on her way back to the med-bay."

"Huh," Shepard thought for a moment, wondering why Jack was hurt. She quickly told the pilot they would take a cab and closed communications.

…

Beads of sweat ran down his face as his legs started to heat up, the battery connections radiating the energy passing through. With ease, he jumped a gap between buildings and saw the end of them ahead as the port gave way to the docks themselves, large cargo shipped resting as far as the eye could see. He caught sight of Mordin down below, closer than ever when a large group of mercenaries lit him up with blinding flashlights. He squinted as he raised his hands and dropped his gun.

A batarian voice came from the light, "Don't kill him! One of the slaves died before he could get on the ship. This one'll do."

The owner of the rumbling voice walked up to Nicolas and kicked him behind the knees. They didn't give, but he knelt of his own accord a second later and he felt the barrel of a gun on the back of his head, "Or maybe we should just kill you for the troubles."

"I think you're the one who's gonna die," Nicolas turned to spit on the batarian's boots to follow up on his bluff.

With a chuckle, the alien raised his pistol, ready to pummel the human to death before a blue glow surrounded him. At the same time, a shockwave blew the mercs holding the lights away, frying their shields. The batarian squirmed, then suddenly, a precise shot blew out of the front of his head, followed by a flurry of full auto fire on the prone mercs.

Before he knew it, an asari dressed in a red, tight suit picked him up and pulled him by the arm. She sped up the pace until Nicolas had difficulty keeping up before she spoke a word, "I need to catch her. It will be easier with your assistance."

…

"Alright, Jack, what happened?" Shepard started talking as soon as she entered the medbay. A machine arm was above Jack, with Chakwas standing behind it. The doctor gave Shepard a stern look, making the Commander slow her pace and lower her voice. She reached the biotic, who had a frustrated smirk on her face.

"Baker and I were chasing an Ardat Yakshi that had killed a turian at a club."

"At a clu- Alright, and you were naturally without armour, what about Nicolas?"

"Armour is so clunky, we'd have never caught her with armou-"

Jane interrupted, elevating her voice, Chakwas chose to let it slide, "Was he wearing armour or not?"

Jack scoffed, "No but if he isn't fine, he shouldn't be on this ship anyway."

Before Jack could finish, Shepard had stormed out of the medbay. She called Baker but he didn't answer so she checked his location. Without missing a beat, she jogged for the hangar, pinging Grunt.

"Ready up and head for the Kodiak. We're going to the port."

"What, is there fish to catch?" Hal crackled through Jane's translator.

"Real funny," she spoke with a cautioning tone as she entered the elevator.

…

"That ship! She's about to board."

Nicolas saw the ship the asari had pointed out and was able to see Morinth's scalp in the distance. He stopped running, knowing that they had lost her. Pulling out his gun, he carefully took aim and squeezed out a shot that pinged her shields, but the blast doors closed on her before he could fire again. He ran to catch up to the second asari and found her biotically holding a merc against a wall. There was a manifesto on the ground beside him, so Nicolas figured this merc must've been in charge of the ship.

"Where was the ship headed?" the asari asked calmly, her eyes glued to the merc's.

"We don't know! Our job is to load it up! We don't get told shit!"

Nicolas looked at the merc, then at the asari. The mercenary was probably telling the truth. These guys were small-fry, and that freighter was huge. Even if they knew where it was headed, there was no telling when it would get there. With the routine stops to discharge static accumulated from FTL travel and the dangers to be found in the Terminus, it could be weeks or months before the ship reached its destination, with almost no way of tracking it during transit.

"Hey, leave him. He really doesn't know."

The asari's frustration surfaced for a moment in the shape of a very slight frown. The calmness back on her features, it took her a split second to raise her pistol and put a round through the merc's head. She deadpanned as he fell to the ground, "The ship was filled with Red Sand. He was to be punished regardless of whether he helped Morinth or not."

Nicolas shook off the surprise of seeing the merc get executed, "Why are you so intent of catching her anyway?"

"It is the duty of the Justicars to right the wrongs of the galaxy. Ardat Yakshi are one of those such wrongs."

Nicolas wanted to scoff at the seriousness with which she spoke but before he could, she spoke in the same calm tone, "More are coming. Get to cover."

A FENRIS mech came closer up some stairs leading to their roof, its approach silent save for the clacking of metal paws on the ground. Nicolas readied his omnitool as the robot emerged and approached at an alarming speed. With a hacking program ready, he extended his arm to ensure a steady connection, praying it'd take effect in time. The Justicar stood by as she observed the mech suddenly screech to a halt and turn around, running back towards its masters with the same emulated intent it had before.

Shouts were heard from bellow as noises echoed from the buildings surrounding them. The two hid in the shadows and hoped they hadn't been spotted yet. The hum of an engine faded in from far away, suddenly the Normandy's Kodiak flew in from above the warehouses, landing beside them. Jane and Grunt jumped out, the Spectre shaking her head at Nicolas as she approached the asari and the Krogan scanning the surroundings, a heavy machine gun at the ready.

"I'm Commander Shepard. I see you've borrowed the help of one of my deck hands."

"Deck hands?!"

"Justicar Samara," the asari introduced herself, "I appreciate his help, but my objective is still at large, unfortunately. Her trail has gone cold, so it could be a long time before she resurfaces."

Grunt started shooting at the approaching mercs, mowing them down before they could even squeeze out a shot. The muzzle flash from the mass effect rounds superheating as they left the barrel lit up the surrounding area. Grunt laughed maniacally as Shepard got closer to the Justicar so she could be heard over the noise.

"This is exactly why I'm here, Justicar," Shepard extended her omnitool and Samara did the same, accepting the document the Commander had given her, "The Collectors are abducting human colonies, leaving nothing behind. I intend to stop them, but I need a team. My sponsor gave me a dossier on you, as you'd be a valuable addition to the team. If you come with us, I will dedicate my available time and resources to helping you with anything you need to do before we go to the Collectors themselves."

The Justicar skimmed over the document she had been handed and nodded silently before extending a hand to Jane, "The code forbids me from passing up this opportunity. I trust you will hold up your end of the deal when the time comes."

Nicolas rolled his eyes at the formality of the situation as he stepped back into the Kodiak, Grunt's gunfire and laughter rattling the hull.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter! I hope the dual, alternating story wasn't too disorienting, I had a blast writing it!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6! Enjoy! All characters in this fanfic belong to Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

The Normandy was quiet as the crew still on shore-leave returned for a good night's sleep as the deck-hands from the night shift readied the ship for take-off. The door to the commander's quarters slid shut and the control panel cycled to red. Jane stood beside her desk massaging the bridge of her nose as Nicolas realized he was about to get chewed out. She turned around swiftly but took a moment before speaking.

"EDI, make sure we're not disturbed," her voice was clearly strained, trying to sound calm.

"Of course, Commander, logging you out."

There was another moment of pregnant silence before she started, almost whispering, "What the hell were you doing?"

Nicolas frowned, everything turned out to be fine. What was the problem? "We were just out for drinks and then we witnessed a murder, what were we supposed to do?"

"So you just went like the great avenger that you are, huh?" Shepard's tone went half a tone higher, her hand left her nose and she glared at Baker.

The hostility caught him off guard, it was annoying, "What the- , since when have you been ok with something like that? A person was killed."

"Oh, I bet you were so bothered by the fact that asari killed a random turian!" Her tone was mocking and her voice went louder as she bared her teeth with each word, "You were just looking for a chance to do something stupid."

"So what if we chased someone for the hell of it, we were on shore leave," Nicolas matched Jane's volume as he took a step closer. He pointed at himself as he snapped, "I ended up getting us on better ground with the Justicar! Why the fuck does it matter what I was doing?"

"You didn't have to go without armour!" Shepard shouted as she gave Nicolas a hard push, his legs providing the extra weight to keep him just barely on his feet, "You could have gotten killed."

He didn't know what to say as Shepard's glare was interrupted by a few blinks and her eyes went glassy, "Jack can go without armour for all I care," her voice cracked for a second but its firmness came back almost instantly, "You can't."

Nicolas exhaled through his nose, defeated, "Alright, Jane. I'm sorry…"

The commander blinked more as she looked up for a moment, waiting for the tears to recede before she looked back at Nicolas, her calm face back on, "You're off the ground team for the Shadow Broker's base."

Nicolas' eyes went wide but Shepard spoke up, loudly so he wouldn't be able to answer, "Until I feel the point got across, I can't trust you to look out for yourself. Dismissed."

That stung.

He shook his head as he chewed on what she said. Without looking at her, he made for the door, "Fair enough, commander."

…

Joker knew Baker would be in trouble, but by the way the commander sounded when she called him, he bet it was even worse than he imagined.

"Jeff, how fast can you get us to Hagalaz?"

Jeff typed in the destination as he calculated the time they needed to leave Illium, "Is that Hagalaz with a Z? One Primary Relay and one Secondary. With a quick pit-stop to buy some snacks, we should be there within 12 hours, commander."

"Thanks. Get some sleep."

Joker heard the elevator stop at the CIC as Shepard cut off the call. Baker emerged and walked towards the cockpit lazily, the smell of alcohol and cigarettes reaching the pilot well before the guy, "The commander sounded pissed."

"That's most certainly an understatement," Nicolas rummaged through his pockets and found a pack of cigarettes. He took one out and fiddled with it, knowing he'd have to go somewhere else to smoke it, "I'm grounded until further notice."

"Sucks, man," Jeff pursed his lips, "You did kind of fuck up, though."

"Ah shut up, Joker. I could've caught the asari if Jack hadn't gotten shot."

The pilot laughed, "But you didn't catch her, and Jack _did_ get shot. See it from the commander's perspective. To her, she could've had Samara either way, but now she has to keep Jack in the medbay because radioactive rounds are a bitch and you in the ship because you're reckless. I'd be pissed too if I lost two of my squad over something stupid."

"She didn't lose anyone."

"Hey," Joker raised his arms, "Don't understand if you don't want to, that's just how it is."

…

"Activating stealth systems," EDI's voice sounded almost like a warning as it filled the hull.

The Normandy's hum went one octave lower as red lights lit up around the walkways of every deck and the main lighting switched off. Every system that could went into low energy consumption mode, and all the staff that was non-essential for the mission went to the sleeping pods to save heat. The ship had just left FTL as it closed the gap between the Hourglass Nebula's Secondary Relay and the Sowilo system.

Joker announced their sensors would be receiving data on the planet in a few minutes as Mordin sat down on the co-pilot's seat. A diagram of Hagalaz appeared on the cockpit's screen and the location of the Shadow Broker's base was pointed out, right on the frontier between the dayside and the night side.

"Hagalaz has a day cycle of 98 standard hours. The ship is hidden in a storm that flees from the sunrise sunrise," Mordin looked through the data he could find on the planet and the files Liara had forwarded.

Joker frowned at his screen, "Staying down there will cook us too fast, and we don't know how far his surveillance goes. I can drop you guys off at the ship, but then I'd have to wait on the dark side of the planet to keep the stealth systems going for as long as we can."

Shepard huffed, looking at the planet on the screen, "What's the temperature down there?"

Mordin inched closer to his screen as his eyes went frantically over the data feed and the colour map that was there, glowing, "The surface is well above boiling, from the angle the sunlight is reaching the dusk. The storm lowers the temperature considerably. Walking around the ship's hull would be comfortable if not for the thousands of lightning strikes every second," the salarian leaned back on his chair and frowned as a hand came up to his chin, massaging the leathery flap that showed up when he tucked his jaw closer to his chest, "troubling."

"The ground team could use the stealth gear," everyone looked at Jacob, who stood at the back of the cockpit with his arms crossed.

"Yes!" Mordin turned around in his seat to give the human an approving look before going back to his screen, "The stealth materials are very obstructive to electric currents, and the back cape can keep your equipment covered so it doesn't attract any lightning strikes."

Jane crossed her arms and pursed her lips as she frowned at the displays, "OK, so to get dropped in under the radar we have to keep radio silence until extraction. On top of that, our gear will give us minimal protection against mass-effect weaponry and we have no clue how many mercs the Broker has under his belt."

"A larger strike team would only jeopardize your element of surprise, Commander," the Cerberus agent pointed out.

"I'm aware of that, Jacob," Jane massaged the bridge of her nose as the heat in the cabin suddenly became noticeable. She activated her omnitool's radio function, "Liara, Garrus, Thane: get to the armoury. We'll be going in stealth gear."

…

The armoury was weirdly silent as the ground team suited up. The fabric made no noise as it rubbed against itself or on the floor as everyone slipped the stealth fabric on top of the light-weave armour. The magnetic seams sealed around the suit's joints and the back cape snapped closed around the weapons on their backs.

The silence wasn't helped by the crew. Liara was lost in her thoughts, her frown and the resolve in her eyes helped everyone realize what kind of a mission they were going on. Garrus was always quiet before missions, especially as he got his equipment ready. He barely blinked as he inspected the suppressor module on his rifle before lodging the weapon firmly on its slot under the stealth blanket. Thane might as well have been a statue, as everyone expected and Shepard surely had something on her mind. Garrus spared a moment to give her a quizzical look but she just shook her head grumpily, dismissing the tacit question.

It wouldn't take the turian long to find out what was bugging the commander. The door to the armoury whooshed open, Nicolas walked in and up to Shepard and waited for her to acknowledge him.

He preferred not to wait long, "Jane, can I talk to you about something? It's about the broker's base."

"No time, Nicolas. Just tell me here," Jane spoke clearly and loud, her N7 training showing in her tone.

"Well, it's the squad. I think that if you have to go in stealth gear and you're committing to it, you should go in several strike teams."

"No, if we're a small group we can keep our element of surprise and we're less trackable. Was that all?" She looked up from having clasped the tethers of the stealth fabric to her shins.

Nicolas started to stammer as she met his stare and started to stand, "I- It'd be safer if you-"

"We'll watch each other's backs, Baker. Don't sweat it," she half smiled, her eyes wide in a glare expertly hidden from the rest of the group as she rose to a stand, "If you'll excuse us, though, we have to get ready mentally as well. We'll talk after the mission, yeah?"

...

The Normandy swerved under the strong winds as it dove through the dark golden clouds that coated Hagalaz. Lightning flashed by the port observation deck as Nicolas stood there alongside Miranda and Kasumi. Samara had left the room to eat while the ground team was dropped off. Soon the clouds vanished and a harsh spray of rain crashed silently against the viewport. Behind the coat of water that had formed, in the distance, was the long and menacing silhouette of the Broker's ship, Lightning strikes attacking it every half second.

"Let's hope the stealth gear keeps them isolated," Kasumi spoke with a grim tone.

"If it doesn't, this mission will be over quicker than expected. She shouldn't have helped the asari," Miranda frowned as she looked out the window.

"Surely anyone with half a neuron could see the benefits in helping an information broker that happened to have studied the protheans for over 50 years," Nicolas chuckled grimly, Miranda shot him a poisonous look as he continued, "especially if its bringing us to the secret location of the Shadow Broker."

"I don't see how a dead commander would help us," Miranda snarled at Baker.

"Your optimism isn't helping either, Lawson," Nicolas met her glare and held it, "If you felt you had an argument compelling enough to keep Shepard from risking so much, you should've spoken up earlier."

"Alright guys, this isn't helping either," Kasumi interjected loudly. Nicolas stormed out of the room as the Normandy lifted off and away from the Broker's ship. The black dots outside the window that were the squad faded into nothing behind the thick coat of rain that raced across the viewport as the ship went into the clouds, then the dark of space.

…

"Goddess, it's easy to assume the Shadow Broker doesn't get many visitors," Liara half shouted as the torrential rain and the gusts made her crouch so as to not be blown away.

"You should activate your mag-boots, Ms. T'soni," Thane approached the asari calmly and tapped her boots, which immediately glued themselves to the hull, splashing the water out from under them, "Walking should be easier now."

"Now we just have to hope the stealth gear is as isolating as Jacob said," Garrus spoke over the radio, panting as he walked around, battling against the wind. Shepard walked beside him, scanning the hull with her omnitool, its hologram struggling to maintain itself in shape through the rain.

The wind howled on the creases in her helmet as the rain hit and slid off her visor. The suit's radio suite did its best to cancel out the noise but it could only drown out a fraction of it as the squad's panting just barely were audible over the racket. A lightning strike blew a couple of meters away from Jane. The electro-magnetic pulse shut down her suit's systems, the mag-boots along with them and she lost her footing, sending her slipping along the hull towards the back of the ship. Garrus ran after her for a good ten metres before he could catch her and help her up. It was a few seconds of unhindered roaring wind and holding onto Garrus' hand before the electronics had rebooted. She spoke up, panting, "Liara, go with Thane and find an entrance. Garrus and I will search in another direction."

The two groups split up, each soon finding one. Liara and Thane stood by, awaiting orders as Shepard hacked into the lock mechanism with Hal's help. She accessed it without tripping any anti-malware programs and planted a remote access program before going to Liara and Thane with Garrus at her side. With the AI at the helm, she got the door to open and they ran in. The door slammed behind them and they all sank into their shoulders hoping no one heard the noise. The coast seemed to be clear though, so everyone drew a weapon and advanced into the ship, which rattled almost deafeningly as the storm pummelled the hull.

…

"What's the temperature, EDI?" Nicolas asked as he let himself fall on a chair in the mess hall. The crew that wasn't in the sleeping pods had removed their uniform jackets and several were fanning themselves with datapads. Many of the systems had been put on standby so nearly everyone sat at the crew deck, drinking isotonic fluids.

The blue hologram popped up beside the kitchen counter, "The interior hull is at 40 degrees Celsius and the heat storage units will reach capacity in 10 minutes."

"What happens then?" a drowsy Kasumi asked as she pulled her hood back, showing a small mane of dark purple hair, which she proceeded to tie in a short pony tail.

"We'll heat up a whole lot quicker, lassie," the engineer, Donnelly sighed, "unless Joker chooses to vent the heat, though that'd put the mission at risk."

"Let's just hope the mission is over quick," Baker sighed as he waved a wet towel in the air before dropping it on his face, steam wafting up from it immediately.

Joker's voice crackled through the PA system, "I can start turning off any systems that are quick to reactivate, like the artificial gravity, the lights, the orbit maintaining thrusters and other non-essentials. It would give us a few more minutes of bearable heat levels."

Miranda looked around the crew deck and saw that no one looked like they were about to protest. She activated her omnitool and addressed the pilot, "Go ahead, Joker."

His voice answered without missing a beat, "As soon as Shepard calls, I'm turning the gravity back on, so hold on to something."

There was an audible mechanical sigh running through the ship as the lights switched off and fluorescent pathways began to glow along the floor and ceiling of the Normandy. A familiar feeling of his insides churning came over Nicolas as he started floating off his chair but he held onto the backrest before he'd drifted too far off.

"Baker, do you mind?"

He looked to his side to see Miranda holding on to her seat, her hair floating in every direction with most of it plastered to her sweaty face. He chuckled a bit before reaching over and holding her down by the shoulder as she quickly tied her hair into a tight braid.

He pursed his lips as he looked towards the pot observation room, the stars twinkling outside the window. His thoughts went to the strike-team down on the stormy planet, _Come on, Jane. Get back to us soon._

…

"It seems there is a security checkpoint up ahead," Thane looked at the display on his omnitool, fed by a small camera in his fingertip, which peaked around a corner. The dim hologram showed five figures standing against the walls ship. Their weapons had been highlighted and it was clear they had to get the jump on the enemy, or get decimated.

"Garrus , Liara and I will have to get their attention first, then Thane can take anyone left out," Jane looked around at her companions, "Liara, you have the radio jammer, right?" when the asari nodded, she continued, "Once you activate it, we prepare to fire. We can't afford to miss, we can't afford to let them fire an unsuppressed shot and we can't afford to leave anyone alive. Thane and Garrus, be ready to disable the weapons of anyone left alive after the first round of fire. Does everyone have their suppressor modules active?"

Thane looked around the hull and found a pipe leading to the high ceiling of the deck. With surprising speed, he climbed to the roof, onto a maintenance catwalk, and he disappeared into the darkness and kilometres of cables and pipes, stalking towards the enemy. Garrus, Liara and Shepard didn't have to wait long, huddled against the corner until their helmet radios came to life with the raspy drell voice, "in position, commander. Once the first shot is fired, I'll jam their weapons and take down the ones left alive. No need for you to fire another round."

"Copy that, Thane. Radio silence starts now," with that, Jane nodded at Liara and expanded her assault rifle as the asari activated the radio jammer.

A high pitched whirr began within their helmets as the strong signal overwhelmed all other communications. The guards had surely heard it as well, as their weapons were expanded when the squad popped out into the corridor. The squad fired in unison, landing two headshots and a bullet into a guard's neck. Thane descended from the ceiling, landing on one of the guards. He snapped the neck of the last one standing, who had taken an unwitting step back towards the Drell before walking over to the one he'd landed on and firing a silent shot into his helmet. The guard who received a shot to the neck stopped squirming shortly, lying still in a big pool of purple blood. The whirr of the radio jammer stopped.

Shepard huffed as she walked up to the dead guards, followed by Liara and Garrus.

"That was my bad. Pile the bodies in a corner while I clean up this mess," she muttered into the radio as she produced a blood cleaning kit from under her overcoat. She opened the kit, took out a film of carbonite and laid it over the pool. She waited for the chemicals in the film to denaturalize and absorb the liquid into its porous surface before lighting it. In a minute, the film had burned completely in a smokeless combustion. Only some ashes remained, which Shepard brushed off the floor with the sole of her boot.

Hal piped up in her translator, "Radio chatter is suspicious of the group's radio silence. They've sent a team to investigate from the stern of the ship. We should intercept them before they're scheduled to get here."

…

The crew of the Normandy were spread out over the CIC, holding lazily onto the rails at the sides of the corridor. The temperature buffers would reach capacity in a few minutes, and from then they had seconds before the heat started reaching dangerous levels. Moving everyone to the CIC in anticipation to Shepard breaking radio silence was the longest five minutes for the crew. The sweat clung to their skin as the atmosphere was already too moist for it to evaporate, and everyone bumped into everyone within the elevator as it ascended. Joker activated his last chemical cooling pad and let the residue capsule float off. He held the pad to his neck, trying to breathe as slowly as possible. In a minute, he'd have to disregard Miranda's authority and deactivate the stealth systems. It was to be expected that the Cerberus agent would be able to hold out for a long time, but not everyone had her training, and he needed the crew to be awake by the time Shepard left hiding, even if they had to blow the element of surprise.

The pilot felt a hand make contact with his seat. He thought it would be Baker, so he cracked an eye open to look at his display, "It's 70°C, Baker. Go back to the corridor."

"It's not Baker, Jeff," a feminine voice sighed. The pilot turned his head but recognized the Pacific-earth accent soon enough.

"Miranda. I think I should let you know: when the heat buffers are full, I'm turning the stealth systems off."

She took a few lazy breaths before answering, "That sounds convenient, the crew isn't used to these conditions, and they need to be fully recovered for when we have to leave."

Joker arched an eyebrow with his eyes closed. "Was that what you came to say, XO?"

"I came to discuss the matter, but it seems we agree. Can you pass me the pad for a little?"

He smiled at the lack of hostility coming from the operative, "I don't know how cold it is at this point… here."

The two looked out the viewport idly, watching the storm belt seemingly frozen on the surface of the planet, even though down there it raged over its oceans at over 200 kilometres per hour.

"Shepard better call us soon," Jeff murmured.

"Yes, she's got the crew worried to bits."

...

Shepard led the squad as they ran silently for the ship's stern. The rain beat the hull of the ship, thundering louder than the lightning strikes. The inside was dimly lit in a yellowish light, and the blue flashes from outside cast long shadows that stretched down the long corridor. Garrus suddenly stopped and flattened himself against the nearest wall. He exclaimed into his helmet's mic, confident no sound would seep out, "footsteps approaching."

Shepard looked at the rest of the squad, nodding at Liara, who had the radio jammer at the ready, "How many, Garrus?"

A few seconds passed before a response came, "Sounds like more than 6. We'll have to overload the weapons remaining _after_ we do the first round of fire. They should enter the corridor soon."

"Alright, everyone wait for my mark, take the one nearest you, then whoever is closest after that. Don't miss. Liara, ready? 3, 2, 1, go!"

The whirring started and the guards stopped dead in their tracks. A split second later, four figures in deep black fired at them in unison. There were no mussel flashes, and the only sounds to be heard were the rain outside, and the whirr inside. Three guards remained. They dropped their guns as soon as they realized they wouldn't fire. Two tried expanding their omniblades but were quickly shot down, and the third dove for Liara. The asari glowed blue and launched the guard to the roof. The whirring stopped right before an audible crack resonated down the hall. The squad looked at the dead guard as he fell, Liara's radio jammer falling out of his hand.

Hal's voice came to life in the commander's ears, "The security team just registered a death on your location. You have to get out of there now!"

Without missing a beat, Shepard barked the order, and the whole squad was following her, deep into the ship. Pulling up her omnitool, Jane activated the remote access program on the blastdoor she had left closed. Alarms started blaring around the ship and Hal spoke up once more, "Looks like security forces are prioritizing the open door, but there's still a small team headed in your direction. I'd recommend not engaging."

"Very good, Hal. We'll keep low. Patch me through to the Normandy?"

...

"Joker! Joker, do you copy?"

The Pilot felt his organs bubble into existence as the gravity systems activated and the CIC exploded with the bustle of the crew coming back to their senses. The cabin hummed to life as the atmosphere cycled and the temperature plummeted to the standard de-heating 37°C.

"That took you a while! What's up, commander?" Joker asked as he started up the Normandy's propulsion systems. The sound of leather squeaking as the crew sat at their posts finished wiping the drowsiness out of his brain.

"We've been kind of made, so be ready for a lightning extraction. For now just standby outside the storm. The broker's forces are probably too busy with us to keep an eye on their radars."

Miranda stood beside the pilot and bent forward, "Do you need backup? Remember you're using stealth gear."

"We haven't been spotted yet, it's just our cover that's been blown. Thanks, though, Miranda!"

"Be careful, Shepard. Remember what's at stake," Miranda bent a bit further forward, her tone a bit more urgent.

"Alright. Miranda, you've been in stealth mode too long, go chill out. Jeff, I'll call you when I'm done."

…

"Squad's coming, hug the walls," Garrus whispered over the radio. The rest did as instructed. The stealth fabric clung to the hull around it to reduce each user's silhouette as much as possible as the enemy squad ran into the corridor they were hiding in. Instinctively, they all closed their eyes as the broker forces ran by, their armour clacking on the grate floor. Shepard detached from the wall as Hal told her the forces were ordering a sweep of the whole ship, unable to find the intruders.

Further down, Garrus and Thane sniped a couple of guards standing outside a locked chamber. Shepard dashed to catch the corpses and covered the entry wounds to avoid spilling more blood. Liara hacked the door to the chamber open and gasped, the friend she'd come to rescue was inside.

Garrus dumped the two bodies next to a console as Liara looked over the drell prisoner. His body was strapped onto a metal slab standing diagonally on a thick metal pillar. A brace covered his mouth, allowing him to desperately grunt something unintelligible at Liara. The asari eyed the bed, looking for a mechanism to release the prisoner, but as soon as she touched something, the drell screamed as the clicking noise of a taser filled the room.

"Shit! We can't release him from here!" Liara shouted inside her helmet. Her eyes dashed around the room, until they arrived at a camera feed on one of the consoles. She inched closer to it and typed some commands into the terminal. Within a few seconds, she knew what she was looking at, "That's where the broker is, it has to be. We have to go here, Shepard."

Jane nodded and the squad left the room, locking it behind them. Down a few turns, closer to the ship's centre, they found the door to the Broker's lair. A security camera loomed over the entrance, but Hal informed the commander that it was playing a loop. Noiselessly, the squad walked up to the locked door.

The lock cycle went from red to green before Hal could try and access it. He let Shepard know that it was opened from the inside and the squad entered with their weapons raised. It was a large room covered in an impenetrable darkness. There was a large white lamp on the ceiling, but its light seemed to be absorbed by the air around it. Small lights peppered the walls of the room, revealing its circular shape. As the squad inched in, Hal whispered into Shepard's ear, "Someone's here."

A white screen lit up at the end of the room but it was blocked by something that looked like a boulder, towering three metres high. The metal door whooshed closed behind the squad and they were submerged in darkness.

The figure at the end of the room spoke, its tone low, like the sound of an earthquake, "Commander Shepard. Funny you should come here, the offer from the Collectors still stand. Lucky for you, they asked I hand you over dead."

"We're here for Feron. Let him go, and we'll leave quietly," Liara stepped forward into the dark. Only her silhouette was visible against the remnants of light passing by the figure.

"The drell is trapped here because of you, asari. I wonder, was it always your plan to rescue him, or had you originally left him to die until your conscience got the better of you?" the figure stirred and its tip, or head, turned a fraction to reveal four pitch black, beady eyes.

"What race do you belong to?" Thane tilted his head to the side, though his eyes scanned the room, trying to find places to fire from safely.

The alien turned back to his console and grumbled after a moment, "My race should be of little interest to a drell looking for a long lost son, Mr. Kryos."

"He's a Yahg, Thane," Liara spoke up, snarling at the alien from behind her helmet, "they still haven't harnessed the power of the atom. Looks like this animal was taken as a trophy and somehow got a desk job."

The Yahg's head sank a little into its shoulders, "Stealth was a mistake, you should've packed heavy armour," with blinding speed, it smashed an arm onto the console in front of him. The lights within the room lit up, blinding the squad for a second as the alien pulled half of the destroyed console in front of him straight off the floor, snapping cables and making metal hinges squeal. In a flash, the console was hurled across the room towards the squad.

Shepard dropped to the ground as Tane and Liara sprung to the sides. Garrus was still blinking the light away when the console hit his side, launching him towards the corner of the door. The weave of the amour bent, the prosthetic plates cracked and gave, and finally, the bone within his arm shattered. He let one hand go of his assault rifle and started firing wildly at the alien as the rest of the squad followed suit.

The light at the top of the room let out a tendril of white electrified ferrofluid that connected to the yahg and seeped into its armour. The bullets coming into contact with the liquid were absorbed, apparently doing no damage to the alien.

"Bullets don't seem to be doing the trick," Hal quipped between the constant firing as the squad dove behind consoles to avoid the alien's blows and shots.

Liara cursed untranslatably, "My biotics aren't working!" her voice cracked with frustration.

The yahg trained its eight eyes on Shepard and opened its mouth to bare a double row of long, sharp teeth. She fired off a barrage of bullets, one bouncing off the alien's head in a flurry of sparks. Hal's words echoed in her mind as she prepared her omnitool to activate the blade function. It lumbered over before closing the last metres between them in an astoundingly fast leap.

The cybernetics within Jane helped her react in time as she rolled away from the alien's tackle. Her omnitool flash-produced a sharp sheet of carbide as she swung at its torso. Within a second, the liquid reacted with the carbide, overloading the yagh's armour as the electricity passed from the liquid, to Shepard's omnitool, to the ground. Hal made a split-second escape to Garrus' omnitool as Shepard's suit systems short circuited and a cybernetic module in her arm boiled the tissue around it and exploded.

The yagh sprang back, its armour dark once more under the dying light coming from the ceiling. The whole room had a blackout, but emergency lights lit up immediately. Thane resumed firing as Liara gathered her strength to create a Singularity in the direction of the yagh. The alien stopped dead in its tracks as its head darkened and vanished into the singularity. The rest of the body slowly descended until it thumped loudly on the floor. The normal lights lit up once more.

Thane ran up to Shepard, covering the remains of her upper arm in medi-gel. He checked for a pulse before nodding at Liara, who dashed to a console at one side of the room. Voice calls started flooding in, asking the 'Broker' if everything was alright.

Thane silenced his suit's speakers and opened a comm. channel to the Normandy, "Mr. Moreau, we need extraction. The commander and Mr. Vakarian are down, in need of immediate medical assistance. No need for a stealthy approach."

…

Shepard woke with a start. Before she could move too far from her lying down position, Chakwas had already put a firm hand on her shoulder and given her a small push back, "You're safe, Jane. The mission was a success."

This immediately made the commander relax enough to lie back down. She looked around the med bay. The doctor was on her terminal, hard at work on something Jane couldn't make out from her bed. She looked to the other bed and found Garrus. He had his broken arm resting on a small table, with robotic arms above it, perhaps getting ready to perform surgery. She felt a third presence and turned to the other side to see Liara getting up from a seat she had set in the corner of the medbay. The asari approached with a worried smile, "I'll look into what that liquid was. It really didn't like the carbide blade you made."

"What happened?" Shepard asked with a parched mouth.

Dr. Chakwas left her terminal as the arms above Garrus' bed stirred. She made her way to Shepard's bed with a small cup of water, "Something in the Shadow Broker's technology overloaded one of the cybernetics implanted in your arm. It caused a catastrophic failure within the implant and it exploded. Luckily, only your arm was damaged and Thane managed to stop the bleeding relatively quickly."

Shepard winced as she looked at her arm, though it surprisingly didn't shock her too much for the time being, "What happened to the broker?"

"We killed him. It seems like no one he works with is aware of his identity, though, because I took over for him and no one has noticed the difference," Liara looked at Garrus for a moment, then back at Shepard, "I can't go with you, Shepard. The amount of good I can do from the position I'm in, the amount I can learn, it's too much to pass up. I can help in your fight against the Collectors, but I can be more useful if I stick to my duties as an information broker," Shepard nodded, smiling. Liara nodded herself, as if trying to convince herself of that she was saying, "Even if we aren't strictly working together, know I have your back."

She smiled at Shepard and sighed. She then turned to look at Garrus' bed. The turian was looking at the 3D printing machine weaving a cast around his arm as she approached, "Garrus?"

With a sharp inhale, the turian's eyes shifted to look at Liara's. He waited for her to start talking, "As I told Shepard, I won't be able to go with you... I don't want to say too much here," she looked at Karin and Jane for a second, "Someday, the time will be right for us, but it is not now."

Garrus blinked and his mandibles hung loosely, "I know, Liara. I understand."

She closed her eyes tight for a second, "You take care of yourself, OK?"

With that she waved goodbye at the other two and walked quietly out the door.

Karin smacked her lips and approached Jane, "I thought it would be better to keep this to myself until Ms. T'soni was gone. Commander, one of EDI's memory blocks has been partially removed, giving her access to a part of the medbay I didn't know was here."

EDI's hologram appeared beside Chakwas' terminal, "It was lifted by Operative Lawson under orders from the Illusive Man."

"Well, what's unlocked now?" Jane asked impatiently, annoyed at their vagueness.

Karin chewed on the tip of her pen for a second before walking over to the far wall and putting her hand on a hidden seam. The edges of a container were suddenly visible in the clean white of the medbay wall and it slid out, revealing a short drawer that overflowed with cold steam. From it, the doctor produced a small cloudy carbide box and took it to the table beside Shepard's bed.

"It's a pre-grown arm, cloned from you. It wasn't in the ship's manifest and Ms. Lawson told me she wasn't aware of its existence either. We're unaware of what kind of inventory we have," Chakwas frowned at the box, distraught, "we don't know if there are more body parts, or who they belong to if there are. I'm sorry that this obviously wasn't conducted with your authorization, but it is our quickest solution for getting you in the field again. Do you want to have this arm attached, or would you rather wait for a prosthetic?"

Shepard raised her eyebrows until her forehead wrinkled, an empty feeling in her stomach invaded her, "This seems a lot more convenient, doc. I guess it wouldn't be useful to dwell on it too much. Will you be putting me under?"

"Only for an hour, then you should let it rest tonight and begin rehabilitation tomorrow."

Garrus chuckled, "Luck favours you, Shepard. I have to wait a day and a half for the bone to fix and I'm gonna have to make the broken plates myself."

Shepard managed to crack a smile at the turian, "Just expense it, Cerberus should pay for your troubles."

…

The asari was surprised to see the variety in Jane's entire team. She'd given herself some time to spend inside the Normandy, for old time's sake before going back to her new ship. Everything seemed so foreign, the colours of the lighting and the hull gave her the feeling that things had moved on a fair amount since Shepard had died. It was hard not to empathize with the disorientation that the commander had to be going through. On the way to the elevator, she saw Baker sitting on the mess hall table and felt a small _clink_ in a pouch on her leg. Curious, she looked inside the pouch as the elevator doors opened.

Baker heard the elevator doors close, but was soon surprised by Liara sitting down beside him. He looked at her as she sat, "So you're going to spend a bit of time with us?"

"No, unfortunately. I have to get back to work soon. I just thought it would be good for Shepard to keep this, but it seems like she's going into surgery soon," the asari offered a closed hand to Baker, letting some dog tags fall in his open palm, "Maybe you could give them to her when she's up again? If she'd rather throw them away, that's fine. They're hers, after all."

With that, the new Shadow Broker squeezed Baker's shoulder lightly and stood to head for the elevator once more.

…

A few hours had passed as the crew went around the ship doing a full systems check, to make sure the prolonged stealth mode hadn't damaged any equipment. Joker went through the various reports the staff had been sending in when a call came in from the commander.

"Did the good doctor get you all fixed up, commander?" Joker smiled as he settled back into his seat, knitting his fingers together over his lap.

"Aaaaall fixed up, Joker. We're going to be heading for the Dholen system next. D-H-O-L-E-N. There's a particular quarian that needs extraction."

Joker typed the name in to his omntool so he wouldn't have to lean forward and broadcast the display to the cockpit's screens, "So, we have to jump from the Hourglass nebula to… Omega… Pylos to the Far Rim… then a secondary and we're there! It should be a little over 16 hours, commander. Do you want to take off now?"

"As soon as you're ready, Joker. Send me a quick message when all the systems checks are done."

"Will do, commander," Joker waited for a second before cutting the call and getting to work on preparing for the jump.

…

"Shepard, Mr. Baker is asking for permission to come in."

"Open the door, EDI," Jane piped up from her desk as she hung up a 3D printed model of Liara's ship, straining to reach the hook without the aid of her newly replaced arm.

Baker started ranting before even walking into the room, "How hypocritical can you be? Taking that thing on with a goddamn omnibla-… what happened to your arm? Did they send a prosthetic that quickly?"

Shepard sat down with pursed lips. She spared a moment to look at her new arm. It was a bit thinner than the other but as soon as all the capillaries had received proper blood flow, it would look normal. She looked at Baker with a defeated smile, "Have you heard about the Ship of Theseus? It's just a thought experiment that poses the question that if a ship, or any object that has parts…"

"…if that ship has all its parts replaced, is it still the same ship? Yeah, I've heard of it. I've had parts replaced too, you know," Baker shrugged, palms up.

"Yeah," Jane looked him over, her eyes drifting to his legs and his arm, "you have."

She let the silence linger a little before speaking up again, "I got my arm replaced with a pre-grown clone. No one on the ship knows how many body parts that belong to me are aboard, but hey, at least no injury can be _too_ catastrophic now, am I right?"

"That's not the point, Jane…"

"Oh, isn't it?" Jane's eyes were wide, a touch of hysteria in her voice, "They spent billions of credits bringing me back, do you think they'd just let me die so easily? I bet they have parts in here to bring me back to life more times than a cat! This whole mission was set up in a way that I _can't afford_ to be cautious with myself. All that matters are my squad mates, and I think the Illusive man was aware of that when he got me cloned for spare parts," Shepard gasped for air and took a deep breath before continuing, "Seems like that's the way it is, Nicolas. You have to be healthy, I have to exist. We're not living under the same framework… and you're gonna have to deal with that."

Baker chewed on the inside of his lip for a moment, thinking of the right thing to say. He pulled the dog tags out of his pocket and put them on the desk beside her, "Liara recovered these in Alchera, I'm guessing. Maybe you can come back from anything Shepard. There's a small thought in the back of my head that tells me that it might be true, but it shouldn't be necessary for you to leave in the first place."

Jane turned the dog tags over in her hand, reading her name and basic information as Baker headed for the door. She spoke before he was past the threshold, "Thanks for that."

Nicolas stopped, "Thanks for what?"

"For saying that. Thanks."

"I meant it, Jane. Sleep well."

The door to the commander's quarters slid closed and the cabin became almost silent, only the bubbling of the fish tank and the hum of the mass effect core remained.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Next up, Tali's recruitment!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7! Enjoy! All characters in this fanfic belong to Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

"Whew, that's a big one," Joker whistled as the Normandy left FTL and the cockpit was flooded in the deep red light of Dholen. The red star covered most of the ship's field of view before it turned to head for Haestrom, its stealth systems active.

"Dholen's radiation output is off the charts, Shepard. Haestrom's magnetosphere's cooked… things are gonna be gnarly down there," Nicolas said as he read the information scrolling over the co-pilot's display in front of him.

"Care to explain 'gnarly' to our non-human crew, Nicolas?" Jane slapped Baker's shoulder with the back of her hand lightly, making the human chuckle.

"On any normal planet without a magnetosphere, we should be fine. Dholen isn't normal though, so in direct sunlight, shield systems will be drastically overloaded and conventional armour would only be able to block around 40% of the radiation, giving us humans a lethal dose within an hour of direct exposure. That puts Turians at a comfortable two hours of survivability."

"Yeah, but I can't go so I'm all good," Garrus cradled his arm as he called from the ship's neck, tilting his chin upward.

"It was just to give everyone a reference! Long story short, we have to go in with radiation cloaks, sunscreen and stay away from the sun as much as possible. Also, that radiation will do a wonderful job jamming any communication that isn't smoke signals… actually, scratch that, I bet smoke will be scorched by the radiation as well, so radio silence is also gonna be unavoidable."

Hal piped up in Nicolas' translator, "I think I'll be staying in Garrus' omnitool for this mission, then."

Shepard chewed on her lip for a second, then turned to face the crew that had shown up to see the arrival, "Nicolas, Miranda and Mordin, you're going in. Someone tell Samara and Grunt to suit up as well. You'll be taking the Kodiak in and the Normandy will stay out here in case more Geth ships approach the planet. Main objective is extracting Tali… anything else is secondary. Watch each other's backs, alright?"

The three turned for the elevator. Shepard called out, "Miranda, you're in charge down there."

Lawson let that sink in for a second and gave Jane a paused nod before turning towards the stern again.

…

"So where are we landing?" Nicolas opened an optical scan of the ancient ruins bellow. With a few commands, he brought up an IR scan and pointed out the cold, shadowed spots.

Helmet under her arm, Miranda quickly scanned over the options and pointed at one silently. Baker nodded and programmed the approach vector before the packed Kodiak rustled as the squad put on their helmets in unison, their silvery radiation cloaks creasing and fluttering until long after they stopped moving.

A strange feeling swept over the squad as the vehicle landed. Dust seemed to vanish as soon as it gained a little distance from the Kodiak's thrusters and the cabin decompressed for a second before fully opening. Even Grunt's stomps seemed muffled to the squad following him. Nicolas brought up his omnitool as he followed Miranda's commands, taking cover away from the Kodiak. A quick scan gave him the information he was looking for, "Sun's probably baked the atmo as well, Miranda. We won't have radar _or_ sound down here."

"Doesn't make sense. The red giant is insufficiently big for these effects," Mordin protested over the short-range radio. He pulled up his own omni, "Yet… true. Troubling."

"We still have our objective," Miranda scanned the ground ahead for paths in the shadows cast by the ruined city around them. She addressed Nicolas, "Get the engines cooled. We don't want anyone finding our only way out."

The squad neared a door, its locking mechanism inactive. Grunt, Nicolas and Samara walked up and the human pried the door open before the three hauled it the rest of the way. They whirled behind the pillars on either side as Geth within the building fired in their direction. The squad felt the vibrations of more a few shots going off but when there was a lull, they stormed the building, quickly destroying the synthetics inside. Two Quarian corpses were strewn beside the Geth platforms, one of their radios was still active.

Nicolas got the channel frequency from it and opened communications, broadcasting the signal to the squad.

"Who's that? Feda? Golo? _Tet_! Is anyone out there?" A distressed voice crackled within everyone's helmets.

Miranda brought a hand up to hers, "This is Miranda Lawson of the Normandy. Who is this?"

"Lawson! This is Kal-" the voice was interrupted by the distorted boom of a plasma blast on the other side of the radio, "Kal'Reegar of the Quarian Marines. The Geth are trying to reach one of mine. I need to keep them off her, but I'm outnumbered."

"Is Tali'Zorah with you?" Miranda walked in the direction the Geth had to have come from, reaching a blast door. She put her hand to it and felt for vibrations of footsteps on the other side.

"Tali is the one I'm trying to keep from the Geth! As long as they're here, she's gonna be hard to reach."

Miranda beckoned the squad over to the door and they formed behind, "We're heading to your location. Keep your radio on."

"Will do. Hurry up, will ya?"

Miranda put the communication on hold as she opened the door. Sunlight flooded the entrance as the squad dove in all directions, looking for cover from the searing heat that ignored the protection of their visors.

"How's everyone?" Miranda groaned as she squinted, trying to will away the spots that had formed in her vision.

"I feel like I've been chopping onions for a week!" Baker exclaimed, his hands clacking against his visor as he tried to cover all light from coming in.

"I share the feeling," Mordin piped up over the radio, followed by a grunt of pain.

"I am fit to continue," Samara murmured after a couple of seconds.

Grunt's voice crackled through the radios after Samara had spoken, a small huff preceding the low grumble, "What the Asari said."

The group dashed with covered eyes to a larger piece of cover behind the remains of a house that had belonged to a Quarian hundreds of years ago. The stone had weakened from the radiation and bits crumbled off as their armour rubbed on it. Everyone dropped to a knee and took aim at the far side of the space between buildings when they felt the vibration of a door sliding open. They soon spotted a team of three Geth armoured troopers, followed by three juggernauts, their red armour shining an almost neon red in the sunlight. They seemed to be lost as they slowly moved forward, guns raised, pausing every few steps.

Miranda got everyone's attention before speaking on short range radio, "They seem to be having trouble communicating between themselves, so they should be dumber than usual. If we get rid of the shock troopers first, the juggernauts should be even easier to take down. Fan out and make sure to stay in the shadows."

"I will incapacitate the troopers for a short while, then you'll have a window to act," Mordin prepared a grenade before the squad separated, awaiting the Salarian's throw.

They heard him count down over the radio before a faint vibration crept up their boots. Nicolas turned around the corner of the pillar he'd been hiding behind to see the troopers standing still as rounds entered their bodies, the synthetics being powerless to avoid them. He sent a few well aimed shots at their heads when he felt strong thumps under the soles of his feet. Before he could react, a strong synthetic hand grabbed the back of his neck and lifted. As the grip tightened Nicolas tapped his rifle's barrel to the flashlight head beside him and pulled the trigger.

"The juggernauts are on us! They're flanking," Nicolas panted into the radio.

"So they're not as incompetent as we thought," Samara answered through the radio, her voice followed by the sharp crack of a heavy round firing, "One down."

Another shot rang, "Only one left. Find it before it has a chance to communicate with other platforms," Mordin's voice crackled within Nicolas' helmet as he checked the plates behind his neck to see if they'd bent.

A few seconds passed before Miranda ran around a corner, almost crashing into Nicolas. The biotic saw the juggernaut at his feet and shoved his shoulder, irritated, "Call your kills, Baker! We're clear. Let's go where they came from."

They entered another building similar to the one where they'd found the dead quarians. Servers lined the walls and a datapad was hooked up to a large antenna on the far side of the room. Tali's face was clearly visible in it and Nicolas ran over, patching the audio through to the squad's radio.

"Who is that? Is my team dead?" the Quarian asked, her voice eerily calm.

"It's Baker, Tali. As far as we know, Kal'Reegar is alive. Are you still safe?"

The Quarian let out a small laugh of relief as she wrung her hands, "Our luck has turned, then. I sealed the entrance to where I am, but it won't hold much longer. I closed the door accessing the courtyard ahead of you to avoid more Geth arriving, but Kal will need your help."

"Why did you come so deep into Geth territory?" Miranda prodded as the door further into the building unlocked.

"This channel isn't secure, Cerberus. We'll talk later," Tali's tone was piercing as she recognized Miranda's voice from Freedom's Progress. The communication was cut shortly after.

"Let's get moving before Geth come from off planet," Nicolas took the lead towards the open door, feeling a continuous barrage of fire through the soles of his boots.

…

"How are things looking, Jeff?" Shepard emerged into the cockpit, her face illuminated by the displays ahead.

Joker went over the latest scans and pursed his lips, "Same old solar static, Commander. There's no communications leaving planet side… from anyone. I've never seen a star behave like this, though."

Jane pictured Dholen on the other side of the planet they were hiding behind. The red giant had reached that stage thousands of years earlier than what any normal star would. At the very least it was providing them with the sensory cover that they'd probably need to extract Tali safely.

An alarm rang in front of the pilot. In a flurry, Jeff was pulling up displays and data feeds, "We've got a bogey entering the solar system."

"Who are we dealing with?"

"I'd guess Geth. Activating stealth systems," the lights within the cabin dimmed and non-essential systems hummed themselves to sleep, "EDI, prep our guns."

"On it, Jeff," came the AI's response as Jane sat in the co-pilot's chair.

The commander stood behind the pilot's chair as the planet ahead vanished to the side and a sea of stars blanketed the viewports. The ship's HUD highlighted a point in space with a distance counter beside it racing towards zero. The ship whirred as its weaponry prepped to fire, the delivery systems checking and double checking that everything was in order.

"Wait, Joker," Shepard grabbed the edge of the pilot's seat, eyes on the distance counter.

"Commander?" Joker looked at her at the same time as EDI's hologram came to life, showing she was also listening.

"The dropship is surely heading for Tali's location. Shoot it down at the last second, so it can't communicate anything through the atmosphere and call for more reinforcements."

EDI's hologram rotated so the lighter front was facing Joker, "I think the Commander has a point, Jeff."

He nodded, pursing his lips, "We wait here on the dark side, then. When it enters the atmosphere we follow. The team might've already extracted Tali as well."

…

"Good to see organic faces finally!" Kal'Reegar shouted through the radio as gunfire chipped away at the structure everyone was huddled behind.

"What kind of forces are we looking at?" Miranda inched closer to the edge of Kal's cover.

"We have some Juggernauts, a couple of rocket troopers and a Colossus. I'd have been able to take them with my squad if it wasn't for the fact that the goddamn Colossus can self-repair!"

"Geth must be updating. Self-repair capabilities are unheard of," Mordin muttered, "Maybe developing tech on site?"

"That's not the most pressing issue, Doctor," Lawson flash produced a small mirror and extended it past the wall to look at the forces. She was able to do this for a good amount of time until a plasma blast, surely coming from the Colossus overloaded her shields and melted the mirror in the process. The Cerberus agent shook her hand vigorously to get all the molten metal off her gauntlet as quickly as possible, "Alright, I'm taking a sniper position up there. Nicolas, Grunt, you've got the troopers. Kal gets the Colossus with his RPG. Mordin, Samara, can you make sure it isn't able to repair itself?"

The last two nodded, and in the blink of an eye, the team was scrambling away from where they'd been huddled, finding good positions to fire from.

…

The ground shook as the Colossus' internal machinery whirred. A loud hum travelled through the ground as it fired once more before its legs retracted to begin the self-repair sequence. The motors twitched with conflicting information as Solus meddled with their commands. Samara caught a rocket that the geth had fired with her biotics and shot it back at the large robot. Its neck craned as the rest of the body followed, straight for a concrete pillar to its side. To the flank, Nicolas was creeping up on a Juggernaut that stood firing at Kal. The human heard a grunt over the radio as the geth's thermal clip popped out- the quarrian had been shot. He heard Miranda's voice over the radio as the Colossus crashed into the pillar,

"Reegar, you're hit?"

"I've sealed it off but-"

The signal was cut off as sunlight flooded on Nicolas. His shields fried immediately as he squinted and instinctively dove to the ground in front of him. The blinding light didn't let him see the closest shadow so he scrambled forward until his helmet's systems stopped screeching alarms. He looked up to see the Juggernaut that had shot Kal in front of him picking up a thermal clip from the ground. Baker's guns were overheated from being in the sun. There wouldn't be time to wait and change the thermal clip. In a flash, he pointed his foot at the geth and activated a command on his omnitool. His boot exploded as a projectile fired within his prosthetic and blew his foot off. The robot was hit with a shower of sparks and molten metal, stunning it for a second before Grunt burst into his field of view.

The carnage that followed was eerie to Nicolas. The low amount of air and Grunt having his microphone on mute made it completely silent as the juggernaut struggled with the Krogan for a moment until suddenly one of its arms was ripped out of its socket by the alien. White liquid sprayed out and evaporated before touching the ground as Grunt silently and with his face obscured by his helmet swung the arm on the Geth, who'd raised the other one to shield itself. The alien's strength was much superior than the robot's, and it was steadily beaten down, ending up in a dented pile.

The battlefield became silent and Nicolas could only hear the sound of his own breath within his helmet until he noticed the shadow his cover was making was suddenly enveloped by more shadow. He held his breath as he looked up and saw a dreadnought approaching, covering the sun. The human opened a communications channel,

"We are so f-"

Two torpedoes rained down at unbelievable speed from the outer atmosphere, making a quick impact on the dreadnought. The explosions' fireballs were gone in the blink of an eye leaving two giant craters on the enemy ship. A broad string of red light crossed the ship, the Normandy's laser, effectively halving it in one strike. The dreadnought fell silently in the distance, letting the sun flood through once more. Samara's voice crackled through the radios,

"While Tali is extracted, I can return and pick up the Kodiak."

…

The squad burst in to the room where Tali was typing away at a console. She turned around immediately, with a large black box in her hand. She almost dropped it when she saw Grunt laying Kal on the floor, with Mordin kneeling beside him and administering medigel.

"What happened?" her tone was almost desperate, "Will he be alright?"

"Gunshot wound. Systems sealed it and administered antibiotics as usual. I injected specific Bacteriophages and probiotics. He will make it," the Salarian looked up to Tali while motioning for her to keep her distance and not disturb the hurt Quarian.

Nicolas approached, limping on his damaged leg, "We're gonna get you guys out of here, the Normandy's on the way. We need to know what you've been up to, while we wait."

The Quarian wrung her hands as she put the box on the ground, "We sent probes to the Far Rim to keep an eye on Geth forces and found that Dholen was ageing abnormally fast. After less than a century from the last time we'd surveyed this space, the star has come to the edge of becoming a red giant. No one has the tech to do this, but it's impossible that it's occurring naturally."

"So you came here to investigate," Nicolas inched closer and Miranda briskly walked up to them.

"Did you find anything?" the agent demanded.

Tali regarded Lawson for a second before looking at Nicolas, "I have terabytes of raw sensory data, but I've yet to analyse it," she gestured at the box beside her, "I have to get this hard drive back to the fleet."

Nicolas looked at the hard drive, knowing that Cerberus eyes were on them, "It could be the Collectors, since they have Reaper tech, but I can't imagine the Reapers working to make things worse for the Geth. Maybe we can analyse the data quickly on the Normandy, if you could give us a copy while we're on the way to the Fleet."

Tali sighed, "I guess I owe you it. We wouldn't be able to leave if it weren't for you."

"We'll give you anything we find," Nicolas eyed Miranda, who nodded.

The agent's omnitool pinged as the Kodiak landed outside. Grunt picked up the wounded Quarian and they all headed for the shuttle.

…

The squad stripped of their anti-radiation cloaks before leaving the Kodiak. Chakwas was waiting outside, accompanied by a couple of deck hands who took Kal'Reegar to the infirmary. The rest headed for the showers, preparing to de-brief in the CIC deck.

"Why am I so dirty?" Nicolas asked surprised as the water ran black after washing off a layer of dark particles covering his skin.

Mordin answered from the next shower stall, "Radiation suits dispense a layer of Bismuth shavings on the body. Must be washed after use. More protection from radiation," he smiled to himself, "Salarian ingenuity."

…

"Commander, I've finished processing the data Ms. Zorah provided. It's clear the star has been growing at fast rates over the last couple hundred years," EDI's hologram had been atop the centre table of the CIC communications room. It was then replaced by graphs showing diameter growth, temperatures and other parameters regarding Dholen's star.

Tali eyed everything EDI displayed and nodded. She pointed at the data displayed and addressed Shepard, "there's no denying Dholen is deteriorating at a rate that nobody's seen before. At this point it's almost a red giant, and if it keeps going like it is, then it'll go into supernova within a couple of years."

"Seven years, to be precise," EDI added.

"From what we observed when we came to Haestrom, the Geth aren't responsible for it. They don't have the technology to pull something like this off without any visible structures in the solar system or planetside. Still, it's impossible that this is occurring naturally.

The door to the room whooshed open, admitting Lawson and Solus. The Salarian took a quick look at the data and put a hand to his chin, "Would be counterproductive to sabotage their own system. Wouldn't make sense to associate responsibility to Geth."

Hal's crackle came to Shepard's translator, "It could have been the Collectors, they have Reaper tech that we still don't understand. Maybe I could have a copy of the data and look further into it."

"Perhaps the Reapers are behind this. I don't know how, but if this is artificial and the Geth aren't doing it, it's hard to imagine anyone else having the tech to do it," Shepard spoke before facing the Quarian, "Tali, we will continue to chase the Collectors. With them, we might find the answers to this. I _want you_ in the team."

She thought of it for a moment before nodding, "You're right, if I'm going to get to the bottom of this, it's with you. We have to return Kal to the fleet, though and the data along with him."

Shepard smiled, then she thought of how the Quarians got to Haestrom in the first place, "Is your ship down there? We can drop him off otherwise."

Tali shook her head, "It was destroyed shortly after we arrived. I don't want Cerberus around the fleet, Shepard," Tali eyed EDI's hologram that replaced the data on the table, "If it's alright with you, I'd rather leave Kal with a contact elsewhere. He'll take the hard drive with him."

The commander accepted. With that, Lawson and Tali excused themselves, but Mordin remained, "Commander, a word?"

"Shoot, Mordin."

"Grunt. Been showing growing violent tendencies. Okeer's data stored in the tank suggested he was grown to a stable age in terms of physiological development. Entering final stages of adolescence. If unchecked, could prove… problematic. Would recommend consulting Krogan people on the matter."

Jane thought it over for a moment, "I know a guy in Tuchanka who could help us."

The salarian nodded with a smile, "Must excuse myself, will study Collector samples."

…

Nicolas sat alone at the manufacturing bench in the cargo hold. The printer had just finished making the last parts of his missing foot and he was polishing them before assembling the damaged limb. He smiled as his omnitool pinged, expecting a message from Jane or Garrus. No such luck:

 _Mr. Baker,_

 _To begin, I want to congratulate you on your performance in Haestrom. Your ability to bridge relationships between Ms. Zorah and our team was commendable. I am contacting you because of recent developments regarding the Commander. If you'd come to the communications room, I would be able to talk to you in private._

 _Sincerely,_

 _The Illusive Man_

With a huff, Baker jumped off the bench and limped to the elevator.

…

The lights dimmed once more as Nicolas sat on the chair that rose from the floor, lighting a cigarette when the Illusive Man's hologram materialised.

"I'm glad to see you came at such short notice," the older human smiled, smoke wafting from his nostrils.

"I didn't know you'd wait."

The Illusive Man chuckled, "I spend more time in this chair than you'd expect."

Baker smirked, "What did you want to talk about this time?"

The hologram took its time before speaking once more. He took a paused puff from his cigarette before addressing Baker, "I wanted to make sure that you truly understand what is at stake here, and why I am doing all of this," he waved his hands above him, gesturing at the Normandy around his hologram, "You think there is some ulterior motive to my actions- that I'm a snake, going against the Collectors for my benefit."

"And I have reason to think that. You were behind the Thorian experiments. You were behind the Thresher Maw attacks on Akuze."

"Surely you must see the necessity of it by now. Our civilisation has had it too good the recent decades and has left itself wide open to Reaper forces. I take all the chances I can to find an edge on this force that, when it arrives, will slaughter us all. What we do has cost people's lives, yes, but with Cerberus' work we could save millions."

"I'm sorry, but you're not proving a strong point yet," Nicolas laughed before taking another puff from his cigarette.

"Don't close yourself off to reason, Mr. Baker. We are the only ones making an effort to stop the Collector threat. No other organisation or government is protecting the population like Cerberus is now. We know the Collectors are working with the Reapers, and no one is willing to believe us. Do you see how important this is? The Collectors are facilitating the Reaper's arrival and the Galaxy is not moving a _finger_."

Nicolas didn't answer, he could only frown at his conflicting notions.

The Illusive man stood up, "The Collectors _must_ be stopped, Mr. Baker, whatever the cost. The Commander understands this. She will stop at nothing to reach that goal. If it costs her an arm, if it costs her her life, she will not stop. Will you?"

Again, Nicolas kept his mouth shut. He agreed, but he was sceptical of Cerberus wanting the greater good of the Galaxy. It was too good to be true.

The Illusive Man continued, bringing up a panel that didn't come through in the hologram, "We care about humanity, Shepard cares about the Galaxy. Our goals are the same in the end. If she fails, the rest of us must make sure her failure isn't our last try… Go get your foot fixed. If there's any resources I can put at your disposal, say the word."

With that, the hologram faded into the darkness behind it and the lights in the room flickered for a second before coming back to full brightness. Nicolas blinked for a few seconds, going over the short call he'd just had before limping out of the room to finish his repairs.

…

There was a quick pit stop at Illium for Kal'Reegar to take the processed data with him to the fleet. A couple of young Quarians on the last days of the Pilgrimage were happy to let him join. In the same day, the Normandy made the remaining three jumps to the Krogan DMZ in no time.

As the ship drew near, the ship was hailed by Krogan space control. Joker opened a comm channel, "This is the Normandy SR2, requesting permission to land in Klan Urdnot territory."

There was a short pause before a gravelly voice filled the cockpit, "You may land, Normandy. Just pick an empty dock."

The pilot turned around to give the commander behind him a sturgeon face, "This was easier than Noveria."

Jane crossed her arms and smirked, she called EDI, "Could you ask Grunt to put on his nicest clothes and come to the airlock in five? Also Nicolas, Garrus and Tali, they'll want to see our good old Wrex."

"Understood, Commander. Logging you out."

She squeezed the shoulder of the pilot's chair as the Normandy entered the atmosphere of Tuchanka. There was an absence of plasma flares as they descended through the upper layers of radioactive dust remaining from ancient nuclear explosions. The hull hissed as larger dust particles made impact with the hull until the ship reached an altitude between the radioactive fallout and the sandstorm below. The descent was silent the rest of the way until Grunt, Garrus, Nicolas and Tali walked into the cockpit.

Shepard half-turned to see the newcomers and then faced back towards the viewports, "Grunt, you're about to meet an old colleague of ours."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8! Enjoy! All characters in this fanfic belong to Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Nicolas squinted as he walked out the airlock. Yellow dust filled the air, making a thick mist. Besides the humming of the Normandy's mass effect landing system, the howling of the sandstorm outside was the only thing that could be heard. The building they were in was half destroyed, letting sand billow in from the nooks and cracks on the walls and roof. The floor was covered in a layer of sand, and rubble decorated every corner.

Everyone except Grunt put on a breather, no need to ruin their lungs on this visit. A Krogan approached them and wordlessly motioned for them to follow. Sounds of an animal fight echoed through the corridors and they entered a large hall. The dust was so thick that the end couldn't be seen. As they walked through it, they noticed pits to each side with Krogan huddled around them. Snarls and barks came from the pits and soon they saw the Varren fighting in them. The sounds of teeth ripping flesh and crunching bones gave Tali shudders.

A heated discussion could be heard at the end of the hall, where two Krogan came into view. One sat lazily on a throne as the other paced back and forth in front of him. The whole squad except Grunt recognized one of the voices.

"I will not send good soldiers to die. They are _expecting_ us to attack… Shepard!" The Krogan sitting on the throne raised his arms, his features still obscured by the dust, yet unmistakeably Wrex, "Get over here, I see you brought a whole party!"

"Good to see you've been climbing the political ladder, Wrex. How've you been?" Shepard stepped onto the platform where Wrex's throne was, the Krogan clearly visible now. Before he could answer, though, the other alien stepped between them.

"You'd be wise to shut your mouth, human. I don't take kindly to interrup-"

A loud clap filled the hall. Shepard had just head butted the Krogan, making him take a step back. Jane's squad had their hands on their pistols but Shepard extended an arm to still them. Wrex started to laugh heartily and smacked the throne with his hand, "I had forgotten you had a quad on you! Leave us, Uvenk! The decision has been made, we won't attack Clan Yrtin until we assimilate Clan Dresh."

Uvenk stared at Shepard, his breathing tense and forced. Jane arched an eyebrow and Wrex raised his voice a touch, "Gatatog, I won't say it again."

The Krogan huffed and stormed off. Shepard relaxed and rubbed her head where it'd impacted the hard head plate of Uvenk. She looked up at Wrex, sitting sideways, resting his head on one of his hands, a smile clearly visible, impervious to the dust around him. Jane spoke after a moment, "So how've you been, Wrex?"

He groaned as he pushed himself off the throne and began to pace around the platform, "I hate it here, really. No action to be had when sitting on the throne, everyone does the fighting for me. Someone competent needs to make the decisions though, or we'd all be dead. Who is this whelp you bring?" Wrex gestured to Grunt, who stepped forward. The Clan leader continued, "His skin is smooth but his plates are fusing. He must be almost an adult…" Wrex took a heavy step towards the younger Krogan, making the ground tremble. He inhaled sharply and paused for a moment, "He smells strange, artificial. What are you?"

"I am tank-born. I have been alive for months, not years. I belong to no Clan. My creator was called Okeer."

Wrex raised his chin and eyed Grunt when the younger Krogan mentioned the name, "Okeer was a traitor. He experimented on his own. Killed, tortured. If you are made in his image, I should kill you now. What makes you different to your father?"

Grunt's eyes widened for a second. He spoke with increasing volume, "I am everything Okeer wanted to be, not what he was. I have been engineered to be better, stronger, fiercer, smarter-"

"You also talk a lot, much like him... then prove you are what you say. Take the rite of passage, become a real Krogan."

Grunt chewed on his thoughts for a moment, "Rite of Passage. I remember from the tanks lessons, I will need a Krantt."

Wrex huffed and turned his eyes to Shepard, "I don't know what the hell he means with the whole tank lesson thing, but he's right. He does need a Krantt."

"He's got us, hasn't he?" Nicolas blurted out after Hal had whispered the translation of the Krogan word to him.

Both Krogan and the Commander turned to face him, a touch surprised. Wrex regarded Grunt for a moment before smiling and letting out a short and loud chuckle, "Seems like he does! Still, there's traditions even I can't abolish yet… Shepard, take him to see the Shaman. He will decide what our little _Grunt_ must do."

…

Nicolas let himself fall against a block of marble, its faces eroded by centuries of sandstorms. For a moment he begrudged the Shaman approving Grunt's entering the rite of passage, which led them to be sitting in the middle of the sandstorm, fending off the beasts of Tuchanka as a giant hammer thumped the ground, attracting the attention of the local wildlife.

The wind roared in the creases of his helmet as he heard Jane's voice crackle through the radio, "Seems like there aren't any more coming."

"No, Shepard. Something big is coming. That's why the smaller ones have retreated," Grunt's answer came, eerie and calm, "Stay on the marble floor. Whatever is coming will rise from the sand."

Everything seemed to fade away as the thumps from the Keystone's hammer grew louder. Suddenly the keystone stopped and nothing but the howling wind remained. For a second, the squad except for Grunt looked around, not knowing what was coming. In a moment, the ground rumbled and right outside the borders of the marble slab that formed the floor where the squad stood, a Thresher Maw burst from the surface. Its scales shone iridescent and its tongue glowed blue as its acid saliva dripped from its mouth, hissing loudly on the sandy ground.

The squad cursed as the Maw disappeared back into the ground, reloading their weapons and frantically looking around, fearful of the alien's imminent return. It burst out of the sand once more, spewing a stream of acid towards the squad as they dodged and fired at the giant worm. The Maw writhed and screeched when rounds started penetrating its thick hide before it disappeared once more. Through the radio, the squad could hear Grunt's celebratory yells until the Maw sprung up from the sands behind him and dove mouth first onto the Krogan. The rest charged towards the alien that was now struggling to lift its head and retract back into the sands.

Grunts guttural protests sounded through the radio as the squad fired in unison towards the Maw's base until an omniblade pierced its skin from the inside. Blood spurted and gushed from where the hide had been pierced and Grunt began to scream as he used his hands to pull the hole he'd made open, the sound of flesh ripping saturating the radios.

Thane let out s short prayer as Grunt climbed through the hole he'd made, screaming all the while as his armour steamed, the acid eating away at it. Using the last of his strength, he ripped away the armour plates he had off himself and let out a chilling, visceral roar as the Thresher Maw shuddered and died.

"Give me a weapon," Grunt muttered into his radio. Thane came closer to the Krogan and offered his hand cannon which the Krogan grabbed violently and regarded it before unloading a single round into the Maw to make sure it was dead. A Kodiak flew to the area they were at, stopping at the marble platform's side. The squad watched silently as Gattatog Uvenk walked out, followed by several armed Krogan.

"Impressive, the abomination killed a Thresher Maw. I believe it's the only time it's happened since the heretic Wrex did it himself."

Grunt turned towards the newcomers and walked over, his steps heavy. The squad formed up behind him, guns at the ready in response to Uvenk's armed party, "I don't think it's smart that you insult me when I've got a killing high, Gattatog," he looked over his shoulder at the rest, "Krantt, take cover."

Grunt kicked Uvenk towards his henchmen, who lowered their guns to catch him. The squad took cover and started shooting as the young Krogan fell back, jumping over a slab of marble just as rounds flew over his naked hide.

"You're not going to leave this place alive, tank-born," Uvenk shouted over the howling sandstorm, "The Krogan have no use for something born of the mind of a traitor!" Uvenk smiled to himself as the adrenaline coursing through his veins blinded him to the fact that his squad was being steadily killed by Thane and Nicolas' pot-shots, their weapons disabled by Tali's hacks and shields reduced by Shepard's biotics.

The older Krogan's smile was suddenly wiped off when he heard Grunt shout, "Hold your fire, Krantt! The last one is mine."

Uvenk looked around him to find his comrades riddled with bullet holes. He couldn't hold his scream back when Grunt ran towards him, gun in hand and completely naked. Uvenk ran for the Kodiak, opening the door remotely as he shot behind him, but he didn't reach it in time as he was tackled to the ground. Orange blood gushed on his face and eyes, blinding him as his ears rang with Grunt's roar before his head plate started to crack under the wild pistol whips he was receiving. When the hand cannon had been completely obliterated on the older Krogan's skull, Grunt finished the job with his hands, yelling as his fists caved Uvenk's head in completely. The younger Krogan stood panting above the dead one, his bullet wounds now healed and the blood on his skin already dry. He turned to his Krantt and smiled, "Let's go back to Wrex's hall. We have a battle to celebrate."

…

Yells of laughter erupted in the hall of Clan Urdnot. Nicolas watched with raised eyebrows as a group of Krogan, including Grunt and Wrex huddled around a Varren pit, all of them shouting towards the battle going on inside. Tali, who was standing beside him, excused herself when strings of orange blood started flying, splashing on the Krogan's faces. A stack of ryncol barrels were standing to the side of the pit, and the members of the circle would take turns to switch an empty one out for a full one to bring back to the edge of the pit. After a while, Wrex walked out of the circle, laughing at something the other Krogan had said. He stumbled on a loose tile before seeing Nicolas and walking up to him, chuckling.

"Seems like your spot as whelp of the Normandy has been taken, Baker!" the head of clan Urdnot bellowed, "He can take his share of ryncol, but he couldn't read a Varren fight if he had an extra pair of eyes."

"Give him some time, he's technically like two weeks old."

"Bah! Technicalities," Wrex waved a hand dismissively, his sharpness returning as his digestive systems finished metabolising the last of the ryncol, "It is good that you've brought a healthy one into our family. When whatever you're doing is over, he'll be welcome here," Wrex smirked at Nicolas and the two looked at the Varren pit for a short while. The Krogan spoke up when he heard the fight had stopped, "I wanted to speak to Shepard, where is she?"

"I think she went to see your arms dealer a little while ago," Nicolas pursed his lips. He'd been standing by himself for a while, but he remembered Jane saying something of the sort.

"Well, call her. I'm not going to go see Zvend to find a human that isn't there," Wrex shifted to put his weight on one foot and tapped the other on the floor. Nicolas brought up his omnitool and looked up Shepard's name. As he did so, Wrex commented, "You've gotten more street in you over the years. Maybe now you're good enough for her."

Baker blew a raspberry and shook his head as he made the call. Shepard's voice crackled through his translator, "What's up?"

As Nicolas was about to speak, Wrex grabbed his arm and brought the omnitool to his mouth, "I need to talk to you, Shepard. Come to my chair and bring the Salarian with you."

…

Wrex confusedly input commands and undid them on his omnitool as he spoke, "So they have the old hospital on lockdown, and I don't have time or adults to send over."

"Understandable that you want Shepard to help with Blood Pack problem. Why send for me?" Mordin asked, hand on his chin.

"There's a Salarian that's working with them. Thought you might know him, if they're experimenting on Krogan from the other clans," Wrex mumbled as he searched in his omnitool's data banks.

Mordin scoffed, a bit bemused, "Salarian population makes that highly improb-" He stopped midsentence when Wrex pulled up a photograph and showed it to the two in front of him. His mouth hung slightly open for a second before he spoke again, "Maelon, an old student. Who took this photograph?"

"A scout I sent. He hasn't sent anything since. Probably captured for more experiments."

Jane crossed her arms, "So you want me to figure out what they're doing there?"

"More like stop them and drive them off our territory. If you can figure out what it is they're doing, that would be a plus," Wrex shrugged, "Can you do it?"

She nodded and nudged Mordin lightly to get his attention, "I'll get my team prepped," She opened a call to the Normandy, "Joker, round everyone up at the Normandy. Let Grunt stay. He should have his fun."

…

Shepard stood at the table of the conference room, Mordin at her side and Miranda and Jacob opposite. EDI's hologram was on top of the table at half size on Shepard's request. The XO sat back with her arms crossed, going over the information Wrex had given them on a datapad.

She shook her head after a few moments of silence, "So in broad strokes, we have to go into what is practically a nuclear bunker and clear out a whole team of Blood Pack, that probably have loyal Krogan clans in there with them?"

"I don't know how this worries you more than any of the other missions we've been on, Miranda," Shepard raised her eyebrows, a little sarcastic smile on her face.

"My problem with this one is that it just seems like a big favour," Miranda looked at Jacob, who nodded a second later, "You know Cerberus will fund pretty much everything you want to do, but this goes further than that. Don't jeopardize the team without good reason."

"If I may," Mordin spoke up, and the whole table regarded him, "Maelon was a student of mine. The Genophage was one of our projects."

"The Genophage was developed thousands of years ago, Doctor," Jacob interjected.

Mordin shook his head and quickly continued, "In recent years, Krogan population started growing at levels the Genophage shouldn't allow. They started to adapt. The council required us to… update the Genophage. With cooperation from Salarian STG and Maelon, it was redistributed."

Shepard glared at Mordin, "So you neutered the Krogan people _twice?_ "

The Salarian was quick to answer, "There was no option! Krogan expansion is ruthless. It ignores the needs of other species. The rebellions had to be stopped for a reason and they cannot happen again, Shepard," he stayed silent for a moment, his eyes dashing from side to side and his bottom lip trembling. After a long, pregnant silence, he addressed the table, "Maelon's intentions are unknown to me. Both a stronger Genophage or a backtrack are unacceptable. Experimentation on live specimens is a possibility. Unacceptable as well. If this is the case, I must stop him, personally."

Shepard eyed the doctor, then switched to Lawson, "I'm doing this both for Wrex and Mordin, Miranda."

The operative pursed her lips and nodded after thinking it over. Jacob spoke up, "What are you going to need?"

Jane thought this over for a second and addressed EDI, "Could you call up Thane, Kasumi, Nicolas, Jack and Samara?"

...

The wind howled over Jane as her boots released electromagnetic pulses onto the sand, hardening it under her footsteps. Her stealth cloak took on the light brown hue of her surroundings and the sand blown by the wind slid over her as if she were part of the dunes. Behind her, three more 'sand figures' followed. The squad was under radio silence until the hospital was breached, but there were still a couple of kilometres to go.

From atop the Normandy, Nicolas watched with his binoculars. The IR setting was ineffective, so he had to do his best to not lose sight of the four figures walking in the desert, since even though they were magnified, the edges of their cloaks were easily lost to their surroundings. Eventually, he had to blink, and the figures were irrevocably lost to him. He put the binoculars away and jumped off the ship's wing onto the sand. His prosthetic legs hissed under the weight of his heavy armour but then he was walking unhindered atop the static filled sand towards the airlock.

He activated his radio, addressing the secondary squad, "They should be ten minutes away from the facility. Is the Mako ready, Jack?"

The biotic's voice came through loud and clear, a Turian grumble could be heard in the background as well, "Yeah, but Garrus won't stop complaining about the suspension."

"Tell him to stop bitching. It's probably set for Krogan weight, and we're packing heavy."

Jack's voice came through the radio again before the communication was cut off, "Heard that? Quit bitching."

Nicolas chuckled as Hal's crackle took over his translator, "I wonder what Maelon is up to."

"If we're unlucky and Jane needs help, we'll know soon enough," the human muttered, a frown on his face as he looked over the tallest dune at the hospital's higher levels.

…

"What the hell is up with these Krogan?" Kasumi stumbled backwards against a wall as a dead alien slid on the floor towards her. Its inertia after being shot dozens of silenced rounds let it reach her feet from where it toppled over, a couple of meters away. The squad had infiltrated the hospital with ease, and the security systems were overridden to show empty loops in seconds, but feral Krogan roamed the facility, and whenever they sensed someone from the squad, they'd come charging, silently and unarmed, but with their mouths open, ready to pounce.

Mordin stood to the side, looming over a female Krogan corpse on a medical bed. Her chest had been opened, and inside were lines of necrotic flesh, with light blue tumours growing around the area of the uterus. The Salarian muttered to himself continuously but the squad wasn't able to hear him until his eyes came to a standstill on a figure on another bed, covered by a reflective tarp.

Mordin inched closer, his fingers twitching, "Please, not this Maelon," pulling the tarp to reveal what was under it, he quickly put it back and took a deep breath before motioning for the squad to press onwards, deeper into the hospital.

Shepard's stomach twisted into a tight knot as they went deeper and deeper. These feral Krogan were very clearly real Krogan, like the ones in Saren's facility back on Virmire, but unlike the cloned aliens back then, these were unarmed. Her head started to spiral down towards guilt when Thane put a hand on her shoulder and shook her out of her thoughts, "Be careful, commander. Don't get lost in dark thoughts now. Pray for the damned, because there is nothing else we can do."

She shrugged him off, "Prayers won't un-waste their lives."

"It'll help you not waste yours."

A silenced shot rang as another body fell limp to the ground. Kasumi turned towards the two, "Maybe less prayers and more shooting? I bet these Krogan have a mean bite."

The squad continued, finding several Krogan wandering the facility, their eyes dead and their mouths drooling. As soon as they made visual contact, the aliens would charge headfirst into silenced bullets. Mordin spied something and ran up to a door close to the centre of the facility.

"This is the first door to be locked. Shepard," Mordin stood at the lock hologram and beckoned for the squad to huddle beside him, "I want to talk to Maelon first. Explanations would be convenient."

"Fair. Anything that's not Maelon is hostile. Let's set up sound barriers."

The door blasted into the room, revealing an office with a big desk in the centre. The aerogel display on it was pulverized by the door that had been blown off its rails. Shepard ran in followed by the rest, looking for anything that could be a target. Some desperate grunts came from the damaged door on the other side of the room until a Salarian scuttled out from under it, cradling one of his arms.

"My work!" the Salarian shrieked, stumbling to the broken desk. The squad had all their guns trained on him but he seemed to not notice as he left his broken arm hanging while he typed commands blindly into the console.

"This has to stop, Maelon," Mordin inched closer, his gun pointed straight at his old student.

Maelon looked up to sneer at his mentor for a second as his omnitool lit up, streaming the data from the broken desk, "You're risking ruining my research, Solus. I'll make a breakthrough any moment now. Wait, my video feeds must be faulty. You're here but I didn't see you."

After a few moments of pregnant silence where Shepard wasn't sure of what to do, Maelon was able to undo the loop Kasumi had put the security system into. Maelon shrieked once more, "My tests! You've killed them!"

"This is not the way things are done, Maelon," Mordin's tone was cautionary, as if he hoped that's get Maelon to shut up.

"I am helping the Krogan!" Maelon refuted.

"Not like this!" Mordin shook his head as his tone went up, "Not on live specimens, not on children!"

"You can't say that after what we did!"

Mordin didn't know what to answer. His gun trembled and he let his arms lower as Maelon spoke again, "If I cure the Genophage, it will have been worth the deaths."

Mordin frowned, "What we did, irredeemable. What _you_ will do? Won't take blood off your hands," he inched closer and noticed a slight blue glow in the younger Salarian's pupils, "not this way. Not with undignified death."

"When I succeed, they will see it was all worth it," Maelon grinned as he input a command on his omnitool, "I have to do it, someone else might get it wrong."

Mordin raised his gun and closed his eyes as Maelon reached for his own on his thigh holster. A silenced shot rang inside the room before the younger Salarian's body thudded on the floor. Kasumi looked at her omni and frowned, "Krogan are coming from the basement, Shepard. Lots of them!"

Jane walked over to her and immediately raised her hand to her ear, "Nicolas, we need backup. Immediately," she then jogged out of the room, glowing blue, "We're barricading this place!"

…

Nicolas' gauntlets clacked as he tried to cross his arms despite the heavy assault armour down the centre of the Mako's roof hung three heavy assault rifles. Jack and Miranda sat behind him in identical suits.

"Nicolas, we need backup. Immediately," came Shepard's request. Within a second, Nicolas had engaged the drivetrain and the Mako sped towards the old hospital. The sand and dust lifted underneath them, forming a large plume of dust behind. No other message came from Shepard apart from a waypoint for them to find her in the building. As soon as they'd arrived, they jumped off the Mako, guns in hand and they sprinted to the entrance aided by the suit's mechanical systems.

They didn't hear the sounds of gunfire as they scrambled towards Shepard's location, but orange blood ran through the floors of the corridors ahead of them. Soon the noise of bullets ripping through flesh and blood spilling became audible, growing louder and louder until they turned a corner and saw the massacre. Bodies of Krogan were piling up as live ones scrambled over each other, trying to reach something on the other side of the mob.

"Get to cover, Shepard. Laying out suppressive fire," Nicolas shouted as his helmet came out of his suit and closed around his face. Miranda and Jack followed suit and their assault rifles came to life. It was a couple of seconds before the mob realised the danger was behind them and they started to climb over each other to reach the three newcomers. The sound of liquid splashing, the gunfire, the muzzle flash and clouds of orange became Nicolas' field of vision until his HUD showed no more hostiles.

He wanted to vomit when he saw the result, but Hal told him to go see if Shepard was alright. The floor in the room had a thick coat of Krogan blood and both Shepard and Mordin were looking at data scrolling through the Salarian's omnitool, even though they were covered from head to toe in orange. Mordin's chin trembled as he spoke, "Over 300 Krogan he experimented on. Women, children. This data must be destroyed. No progress was made in any direction."

Hal spoke up in Nicolas' translator, "Touch the computer, I need to see."

The human did as instructed, trying hard not to look suspicious. Hal started speaking a second later, "Maelon said he was working on curing the Genophage and he wasn't lying. He had recombinant viruses set up that he was trying to modify through trial and error. The corpses we saw back there looked modified like Saren though, and the Krogan acted like husks. Where did he get this data from?"

"Doctor," Miranda spoke up as she walked into the room, her helmet still shut tight, "The suffering Maelon caused can't be in vain. We can learn from this."

"Nothing to learn," Mordin shook his head, "Maelon was _indoctrinating_ Krogan, in his own way. Technology shows signs of Collectors everywhere. This must be _deleted_."

Hal spoke to Nicolas again, "He was just about to get there, though. He succeeded in making the victim's thoughts independent, but not in keeping them sane, that's why they went berserk. This data can't be lost."

Nicolas said nothing as the squad planted explosives in the room and down the path they followed to leave the building. He decided to not question Hal's choice to keep the research to himself. It was as silent ride back to Wrex's hall.

…


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9, enjoy!**

 **All content of this fic is owned by Bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Urdnot Wrex stood on cratered marble floor. The balcony of the hall of clan Urdnot hadn't been used for centuries, it was too out in the open, so observation of the Northern Dunes was made from within the building. Today was a day that there were no dangers in the North. After Grunt's rite of passage calming the wildlife and the Hospital being newly cleared of occupants, Wrex hummed as he felt the prickle of the sands blown by the sandstorm. He lifted his scope and looked for the Mako that was on its way back and chuckled.

His relaxedness was interrupted when the Hospital in the horizon exploded. The Krogan ran back down to the garage entrance and waited for Shepard's people to return. The smell reached him before the Mako's door had opened. Soon the sound of Varren howling reached the Garage and finally the hatch of the vehicle opened. The squad was covered in sand, wet with Krogan blood. Wrex stood in front of the squad as they came out, with two young guards beside him.

When Shepard came out and had removed her helmet, leaving the breather on, Wrex spoke in a regulated tone. "What is this? The hospital exploded, you're covered in Krogan guts." He glimmered blue for a split-second.

"Maelon was doing Virmire all over again, taking Krogan from lesser clans and the Blood Pack. We decided to make sure his research is never recovered," Shepard spoke clearly but hushed to keep it between herself and the Krogan.

He nodded and looked at the rest of the aliens. His eyes came to rest on Nicolas and he cracked a smile before returning his gaze to Shepard, "Send me whatever you report to Cerberus. We can't be used as weapons again, the Krogan need to stand together," his tone then turned more friendly, "and when you're done, send Grunt back to us. His home is here."

…

Dinner was light-hearted at the Normandy's crew deck. Jane was in a good mood after the call with the Illusive Man, which had never happened before. They were on the way to the Citadel to upgrade the Normandy's shielding systems so there would be a day of shore leave while it was installed. Most had lingered after the food was done, glasses in their hands.

The ship shuddered as it reached the Relay in the Serpent Nebula and Hal spoke through Nicolas' translator, "I caught wind of Sidonis. He's been registered as dead."

Nicolas got up and went to the bathroom, doing his best to not look worried. He typed into his omnitool, _where?_

"In the Terminus, but the information was submitted in the Citadel so it has to be false. My guess is he changed his identity."

Nicolas sat inside a cubicle and frowned, _who uploaded the death status?_

"I don't know. I'm gonna tell Garrus."

There was a crackle in his translator and he stood up. He walked to the wash basin and rinsed his hands as Garrus walked in with his eyes wide and his mandibles tightened around his mouth.

"We have to find that terminal," the Turian glared at Nicolas.

"Touchdown's in half an hour," he tapped his omnitool as they walked out together.

"Then we go ask Shepard if we can take the stealth gear," Garrus murmured as they neared the table.

Shepard's voice startled them as it came from behind, "take it for what, now?"

Garrus spun and blinked a couple of times before starting, "we might have found Sidonis. A false death registration was made in the Citadel. We'll probably find clues as to where he is over there. Maybe I can call Liara, see if she can find something out."

"Well, we're landing in half an hour. Let's get geared up," Jane turned for the elevator and the other two followed, Garrus typing away at his omni.

…

The three had stripped and started to put their armour on when Thane entered the armoury, "Shepard, if I may?" the Drell tilted his head towards the door. Shepard nodded and walked out with him in her undersuit.

Nicolas panted as he got his second foot through the tight mesh and tilted his chin towards the door, "what do you think's up with Thane?"

Garrus hadn't even noticed Jane had left the room. He grumbled something unintelligible and uninterested as he continued putting his armour on. Suddenly, he lifted his head to look at Baker, "Do you think we'll find him?"

"What? Oh, yes. Liara confirmed the false registration," the human alternated between looking at his armour and Garrus, "so he has to be around. If anything we'll find the one who changed his identity. This isn't the Terminus, Big Bird, information is actually reliable here."

Shepard walked back in and resumed putting her armour on, "Thane wanted some help."

"What's up?" Nicolas looked at her as she fastened the clasps on her chest and thighs.

"He has a kid that wants to do what he does and he needs to stop him before he gets himself killed," Jane huffed, frustrated at having to choose who to help, "I told him to take Miranda and Jacob with him, hopefully this clears his mind for the rest of the mission."

"I never thought him to be unfocused," Nicolas scratched his head.

"You never really paid attention, but he doesn't meditate for the hell of it. It's to calm himself down. I just wish I could help him with his kid."

"You can," Garrus offered.

Jane shook her head, "I want to help you too, you know. Who knows what kind of defences the identity man has. I like Thane, he's good people at least in what he's shown, but we've been through too much for me to leave you two to your devices."

"Hopefully Thane will manage with those two. Miranda can be impatient and from what you said, it could be a delicate situation," Nicolas pursed his lips, clasping a gauntlet around his synthetic hand.

"They'll be fine, I'm sure. So, where are _we_ headed?" Jane asked as she stood up, her cloak silently settling.

Garrus stood ready at the door leading to the CIC. He waved it open and walked out, "The warehouse district. The fake registration came from there."

...

The sky car zoomed far out towards the end of the Citadel's arms. The day-night cycle of the space station was deep into the hours of darkness, and the traffic from all around looked like distant shooting stars following invisible highways. Garrus looked out the window silently, his gloves squeaking as he tightened and released his fists. Shepard, sitting beside the Turian, looked behind her to see Nicolas in the same state. She shuffled a little, the guns on her back making sitting down a little uncomfortable, "So what'll we do when we find Sidonis?"

"We kill him," Garrus answered simply, not taking his eyes off the darkness outside.

"Just like that? You don't want to hear why he did what he did?" Shepard questioned.

Nicolas piped up, "He gave Aria everything she wanted to know in exchange for leaving Omega without being afraid of having his tail chased. I was eavesdropping when he did it. I don't think there's anything he could say to make us change our minds."

"What if he's unarmed? You're just going to execute him in cold blood?"

"We did quite the same with Dr. Saleon."

"We were going to take him into custody and he tried to kill us, Garrus," Shepard countered, her brow furrowing, "We've never executed someone."

There was a moment of silence. Shepard turned around to look at Nicolas, hoping to catch his gaze and silently persuade him to relent a little, his eyes were glued to the window though. Garrus spoke up again, "This isn't some C-sec case, Shepard. This is personal."

"It's one of the few things that tie us back to Omega. Sidonis has to die," Nicolas took his eyes off the window and gave Jane a stern stare. She wasn't going to get them to back out.

…

A bald man that Shepard's squad knew as Harkin laughed as he shovelled the poker chips in front of him towards his side of the table. His subordinates were good at Poker, but no one was as good as the ace up his sleeve he used when there was too much at stake. He'd give them bonuses at the end of the period, so he thought it justified to have the satisfaction of winning by cheating.

It wasn't five seconds after the cards had been dealt once more that the lights went out. Before anyone could bring out their weapons to use the flashlights, several shots rang out followed by five thuds of bodies hitting the ground. Harkin whimpered as he got his flashlight to turn on and he saw his guards dead on the floor. His gun popped its heatsink out before overheating, its handle melting in his hand.

"Funny to find you here, of all places, Harkin," a disembodied voice came from the total darkness that filled the warehouse.

"Vakarian?!" Harkin groaned as he tried to pry the melted plastic that remained on his hand, "What the fuck is wrong with you? I-I-I was undercover!"

Hal crackled in the Turian's translator, "He was fired from C-sec a year ago for drinking on the job."

Harkin was lifted up by a strong hand, the vibration of whirring machinery permeated through his bones into his ears. After struggling in vain for a second the human's eyes were drawn to two glowing orbs in the darkness: Garrus' eyes.

The Turian's voice flanged in the darkness again, "I'm not here for you this time. Give me Sidonis and you live."

Harkin tried to get his bearings and take in his surroundings. Someone was holding him, there was Vakarian and… there were two more orbs glowing in the darkness, "Come on, Vakarian. I do this so some poor schmucks can stop looking over their shoulders for once. What's it to you, finding the guy?"

"That's none of your business," the voice behind Harkin answered before tightening the grip on his neck.

"Tell me where he is," the flanging turned to growling, it came closer and the orbs swayed in the darkness.

"I have a reputation to uphold, man. You'd be ruining me!"

A pistol whirred in the darkness, and Harkin was able to feel the cold metal of the barrel on his nose. Garrus' voice came again, lower than ever, "Try me one more time."

Harkin groaned, his face wrinkling up towards the centre, his teeth showing until all his features relaxed together at once, "Alright, I'll set up a meeting. Let me call him," his omnitool came to life and the intruders' faces came into view. The hostage raised his eyebrows, "You're taking hostages now, Shepard?! Gah!"

Harkin was interrupted by the back end of a pistol hitting the bridge of his nose. Garrus shouted in the man's face, a small bubble of spit flying into his eye, making him recoil in an immediate allergic reaction, "CALL!"

The human chuckled as blood bubbles popped on his nostrils. He directed a deriding look at Jane as he brought up an unnamed contact and called. His head lolled as much as the hand on his neck allowed as he spoke, "… Hey. You might be compromised. Purgatory in an hour. Come alone. Yeah," the call was cut off and Harkin fell into a fit of laughter, blood spilling from his mouth and splashing on the floor. Baker let him go and he fell to the ground as he laughed, "Damn, the Saviour of the Citadel has fallen low- and your dogs are even more ravenous than you are!"

Garrus glared at the human, wanting to break his jaw but knowing he'd only be making things worse for himself. An armoured hand touched his shoulder and he faintly heard Shepard's voice, "Let's go. We don't have much time to set up."

…

"So who told you your son would be doing a hit?" Miranda raised an eyebrow at the Drell assassin standing before her desk. Shepard had let her know he'd be coming down but it was bewildering how excessively respectful the alien was. He stood upright but it was almost like he was in front of a military authority, and so _soft spoken._

"The Shadow Broker was kind enough to send some information my way. A man called Elias Kelham. It should be fairly easy to get him to talk," Thane clasped his hands behind his back, but his tone betrayed the composure as he stuttered, "Getting him alone in the time I have might prove to be more- difficult."

Miranda blinked, the name ringing a bell. The coincidence would be improbable, though "I think I've heard the name before. Is he by any chance a human supremacist?"

Thane looked at the floor for a moment, "I do not recall having heard the human's name in the past."

Miranda opened the terminal on her desk and went into Cerberus' archives. A few seconds later she'd arrived to the contact she was looking for and made a call. While she waited for the contact to answer, she beckoned Thane over to her side and pointed at the picture onscreen. The Drell shook his head shrugging as Miranda answered, a sultry tone coating her voice, "Mr. Kelham? This is Ms. Lawson. I'm calling on behalf of the Chord-Hislop Foundation, have you by any chance come to do business at the Citadel?" She listened for a moment and smiled, "Yes, I would like to meet up. See you there."

Wordlessly, she closed the display on her terminal and got up. Thane walked back to the other side of the desk as Miranda rested her palms on the edge of her desk, a lock of hair falling over her face as she blew a raspberry. She looked up at the Drell and smiled, "We are going to Purgatory. Kelham'll be there."

…

The skycar whizzed towards the Presidium. The light of several omnitools and a larger holographic display shone through the dark windows. Inside, Garrus inspected his weapons as the other two looked over the displays.

"Purgatory is at peak time right now. C-Sec will have a response time of 50 seconds from the moment we take the shot. That rules out going close and personal," Nicolas pursed his lips as he looked over the events going on at the club and its location in the Citadel's high-society district.

"So we take long-distance. We can get away pretty easily if we aren't at the place, and civilians can't trace shots," Garrus answered in a matter-of-fact tone.

"You're delusional if you think I'll allow you putting civilians in danger," Shepard cautioned.

"Medium range it is, and we find an angle at which he'll be at a safe distance from civilians. If I get the information on his shielding system, I can make it so the bullet goes through his head but not through the other side of the shield. I can also use a brittle slug that'll pulverise before it goes through him."

"What if you miss?" Shepard frowned at the Turian.

"Garrus doesn't miss," Nicolas sounded almost surprised. His eyebrows were raised as he said it, his eyes unfocused, "I just have to case the entrance and see what shields he has."

Shepard huffed. The skycar was silent for a while until she spoke up, sounding troubled, "He might recognize you if you show up, Nicolas. I'll go to him with Hal," she addressed Garrus, "When you take the shot, you head straight for the Normandy. I can drop the Spectre card if it gets to us later, but I don't want to bail you from C-Sec HQ."

Baker smiled as he brought up schematics of the Presidium, "No one's getting caught today. So here's Purgatory. The queue to get in forms up here…"

…

"Now we wait for Talid to leave and Kolyat should appear any moment," Miranda sat back on a sofa in Purgatory's VIP lounge. Thane sat beside her, his hand tapping on his thigh as he eyed the Turian on the other side of the lounge.

The Drell's voice carried surprisingly well over the music, probably due to the croakiness, "Thank you for your help, Ms. Lawson."

"It's not a problem. Cerberus is putting a lot of weight on your shoulders with the mission, and I understand troubles when it comes to family."

"I trust you don't have a daughter you are unable to take care of," Thane stole a look at the operative, curiousness on his features.

"No- a sister, who I'm working really hard at keeping away from my world," she swirled her glass before taking an absentminded sip.

Thane hummed, but it sounded more like a gas engine rumbling, "Perhaps you do understand."

…

Garrus grunted as he pulled his rifle from his back. The maintenance shaft they'd spotted was cramped, but it was angled such that he could lie prone a few meters in and still see the plaza right outside Purgatory on the other side of the presidium. Skycars flew by in the distance, blocking his view of the plaza itself for moments at a time. He muttered crankily, "It would've been an easier shot if I had been at one of the wards. Better angle."

Nicolas had his arms resting on a guardrail overlooking the presidium. He looked through a set of binoculars at Purgatory, imagining what Garrus saw. "It's the shortest distance in which you can shoot from deep cover, Big Bird," he took his eyes off the binoculars and looked at the entrance to the maintenance shaft a few meters away from him, "There's also less traffic between you and Sidonis this way… Are we all set, Jane?

"If he stands in queue you'll have the clearest shot from your angle," Shepard looked from the plaza towards Garrus' direction, though she couldn't even make out the maintenance tunnel from where she was, "Now we wait."

"Let's hope he arrives before a Keeper finds Garrus," Hal chipped in.

They waited in silence for a few minutes until Shepard snapped everyone to attention, "He's here. I'll wait for him to get in queue and I'll pass by him."

The others affirmed in unison and Nicolas watched the plaza through the binoculars, reducing the zoom factor so he could keep an eye on the oncoming traffic. The three saw Sidonis stand at the queue, looking around himself constantly, surely more nervous than he'd ever been. Some patrons stood behind him and the Turian visibly recoiled, making them take a step back. Jane walked by him and their omnitools flickered for a millisecond. Hal spoke through their radios, "Good thing he's so touchy, everyone will give him space. I have his shielding systems. Forwarding to you, Garrus."

A few seconds went by before the Turian voice flanged through the earpieces, "I'm ready. Now we wait for the queue to move.

The line was quite long. A batch of patrons were let in fifty places ahead of Sidonis and the queue started to move. Skycars whizzed by and Nicolas inched closer to the entrance of the shaft, "Hold."

Another batch were let in. Now the line was moving in two waves. The space between patrons was now thirty people away from Sidonis, "Hold."

Garrus let out a small breath and a grunt of exasperation when the target stuck to the patrons in front of him. The space came and went. They missed the first wave, "Hold, Big Bird."

The second wave was coming up, fifteen patrons away, "Hold."

Ten people.

"Hold."

Six people.

"Hold."

Two people.

Nicolas saw a skycar a second away from Garrus' line of sight. The shot would miss. He shouted into the radio, "HOLD YOUR FI-"

The muffled shot rang through all their earpieces. Within a tenth of a second, Shepard saw a fan of sparks fly from the ground in front of Sidonis, who stood alone in the queue. The shot had been deflected downwards by a thousandth of a degree and the crowd descended into chaos. Blue blood pooled around the Turian, its leg blown off under the knee by the ricochet. Red blood entered the mix as Shepard pushed her way towards the alien. She scoured her surroundings trying to find the second victim but whoever left human blood ran away into the crowd. Sidonis remained, clutching at his stump.

"I'm shooting again."

"No, Garrus. Stand down, right now," Shepard talked into the radio, walking away from Sidonis but towards where her sniper was.

"Shepard, get out of the way!" Garrus' tone escalated quickly to a visceral roar as his crosshairs aligned with Sidonis' head, behind Shepard's leg.

"Stand down or I'll hand you to C-Sec," Shepard's tone was level and absolute. She wasn't budging.

The Turian's field of view was covered in darkness as Nicolas stood in front of the tunnel's entrance, "Garrus, we need to go, now," he looked over his scope to see Nicolas' handgun trained on him, "Put your gun down, Big Bird."

" _Fuck,_ " Garrus snapped, banging his fist on the floor. In a flurry, he was out of the shaft, his gun on his back. Nicolas gave him a disapproving look before turning to run for another obscure alley that could lead them to the Normandy. They left the open air of the Presidium as C-Sec sirens could be heard in the distance.

…

Miranda ran down a Presidium walkway, her heels having collapsed into her boots to allow for faster running. Thane was right in front of her, both their gazes glued to the Turian running almost a block ahead of them, appearing and disappearing amongst the panicked crowd.

"That attack on the people outside has complicated things," came the Drell's croaking voice through Miranda's earpiece.

"It might end up helping. Kolyat will never spot us in this crowd. Talid is for sure going to head to his apartment nearby, and C-Sec might not be around us to complicate things," she murmured under her breath, thanking her genetics for allowing her to keep up the pace with the alien.

A few blocks down the crowd started thinning, and the two took a stairwell up to the Presidium apartments, hoping to reach the Turian's residence before they missed out on anything. They burst through the door to the tenth level to see a Drell, lighter in complexion than Thane, holding a pistol to the open elevator door.

"What-" the younger Drell stuttered before reaching towards the elevator and grabbing the Turian, its neck trapped in a headlock and a pistol wedged under its mandible, "Is this a joke, showing up at this time, of all?"

"Kolyat, I couldn't let you go through with this," Thane stretched an arm out to his son, who was backing away towards Talid's apartment, "This isn't what I wanted for you."

"Well, what _did_ you want? All you ever cared about was this. Mother was-" Kolyat interrupted himself by jamming his pistol further into his hostage's face, " _Open the door!_ Mother was devastated every day you were gone, and when she died, all I knew of you were the credits that showed up in my account. You _left us,_ you left _me._ "

The three inched into the apartment as Thane pleaded, "All I ever knew was killing. I couldn't be a parent to you like your mother's family could. There hasn't gone a day that I wish I could've done something else with my life, something that would let me be a functional part of our family, but I needed to give you a better life than mine."

"Thank the Goddesses you tried, huh?"

"Kolyat, your father wouldn't be here if he didn't care. He wants to start anew, make up for the years lost," Miranda spoke, her tone expertly modified to be soothing, "He's dying."

The younger Drell's eyes shifted from hers to his father's, "Kepral's?" Thane nodded silently, but Kolyat's frown deepened, "He won't stay. After today, he will just run off again as soon as he gets the chance."

"I will-" Thane didn't know what to say and instead his mouth stayed open.

Kolyat's grip on the Turian, who'd stayed silent this whole time, loosened just enough for him to suddenly struggle out of the headlock. In the blink of an eye, Miranda's pistol was pulled from her holster and a shot rang in the apartment, followed by the splatter of grey matter and blood hitting the ground. The Turian's corpse thudded as it fell and Kolyat recoiled backwards, his knees giving out, "What the _fuck,_ " he whimpered.

"You're not made for killing, Kolyat. You're better than that. The life we live- I can assure you, you don't want it," Miranda holstered her weapon and gestured for Thane to go pick up his son, "Your father will come back to you soon- to stay. In the meantime, I can offer you a place to stay, where this mess won't get to you. Please, give your father a chance. All he's ever done was with you in mind."

Thane eyed Miranda as he wiped blue blood from Kolyat's face with his sleeve, the boy's gaze lost to shock, "Why did you kill the hostage?"

"He was anti-human, and a mobster. Cerberus couldn't allow him to enter the galactic government," she answered as she holstered her pistol, "We can give your son a place to stay in Illium, where he'll be safe from everything he's gotten himself into here. I can arrange for a shuttle, so he can be off the station by the time we leave."

"That would be convenient. Thank you," Thane nodded as they walked out.

Miranda locked the apartment's door as they exited, hacking the lock mechanism to remain shut until it was forced. She looked at the Drell with pursed lips, "I can leave you with him for the time being. I'll let you know when the Normandy is ready to go."

Thane nodded silently as he walked away from the Cerberus agent towards a skycar station.

…

The Turian sat at the conference room, his hands entwined as he rested his elbows on his knees. Shepard had ordered him to wait there while she changed into clean fatigues, the Turian blood was making her skin itch. His heart raced as he went over his recollection of the events. _He had the shot. Sidonis could have ended there and then. It was his right to impart justice for the people that died in Omega._

His eyes were glued to the floor as the door slid open and then closed. The sound of steps stopped on the other side of the centre table, in front of Garrus. His gloves squeaked as he tightened his hands around themselves when Jane broke the silence, "Vakarian, look at me."

He looked up to see Shepard glaring back. The stress from the past month had torn at the skin on her face, letting the orange glow of subdermal weave shine through. The assisted healing of the cybernetics had atrophied the muscles in her irises as well, and he could see the orange glow even in the brightly lit conference room. She didn't take her eyes off his as she began to speak, "I'm gonna let you talk first, maybe there's something I missed."

Vakarian gnashed his teeth, holding himself back from blurting out the jumbled thoughts in his head, "We came to kill Sidonis for everything he did in Omega. I had to finish the job. I trusted you to help me, Commander. After all we've been though together, we were at the finish line and you stood in the way. You even got Nicolas to turn on me."

"Turn on you?"

"He was ready to shoot me. His safety was off."

"You were putting civilian lives in danger, Garrus. You shot a civilian, as a matter of fact. The ricochet didn't only hurt Sidonis," her tone turned sour as she opened her omnitool, "You even made the news, look."

Putting a hand on the table, a holographic display came to life, showing a large headline from one of the Citadel's newsfeeds, _IS THE PRESIDIUM SAFE ANYMORE? HITMAN HURTS TWO_. Underneath was the story, surrounded by ads for civilian shielding modules.

"Look at what revenge has brought you. The people are afraid, afraid of you," Shepard gestured at the headline, letting her hand fall to her side, "Had you made the shot, the story would have been similar, but would it have been worth it? To be the bad guy you used to protect people from? I think Nicolas was actually on your side when he pulled the gun on you, Garrus. Anything you did from that point on you could've deeply regretted."

The Turian looked down at his hands, his mandibles hanging loosely as he analysed the events that had led him to that chair, "I was ready to shoot through your leg to get to him…" he looked up to his commander, his face contorted into an emotion Shepard hadn't seen before. Was it shame? "That's not me, Shepard."

She walked around the table and put a hand on his shoulder, "You're better than what happened out there, Garrus, I know you are. Let this go. Let your friends rest and let Sidonis have an eye over his shoulder the rest of his days. Let him run from the ghosts of his past until his remaining leg gives out. When we dealt with Saleon you were dissatisfied. His death was relatively painless compared to the ones his victims suffered. Now you have the chance to give Sidonis that very treatment."

Garrus nodded, letting out a long sigh, "I… need some time to get my shit together."

"You really do," Shepard agreed, "maybe we all do. This mission is taking our good sides out of us."

"I don't think anyone else could do it."

Shepard sighed and squeezed the Turian's shoulder, "Sometimes I wish that weren't true, Garrus. Go get some rest, while the Normandy's still in dry dock."

…

Miranda sat writing the report on the favour the Illusive Man had allowed for the Drell crewmember. It would be good news that at the same time, Cerberus' agenda could be propelled forward. Now one more member had their conscience cleared before the suicide mission. She stopped typing to ponder on how so many people Shepard was able to have join the cause. Maybe none of them realised the odds that were stacked against their survival. Maybe it just so happened that Cerberus had succeeded in gathering the few unbalanced minds in the galaxy that could also hold their own in a fight. Her thoughts were interrupted when her door chimed.

"Come in," she called out as she minimized her report.

The door opened to let Thane in. She'd expected him to show up at her desk, but it was sooner than she'd thought it would happen, "Hello, Thane. Anything I can help with?"

"Only if you aren't busy. I came to express my gratitude."

She let out a small chuckle and played with a lock of hair as she spun in her chair, finding the perfect occasion to tease the alien, "As much as I'd love to indulge myself, Mr. Krios, I have some paperwork to deal with."

The alien blinked repeatedly and stuttered, "I didn't mean-" he stopped himself when he saw the smile on Miranda's face and relaxed, "I was able to have a conversation with my son when I was with him. I hadn't thought that would happen while I lived."

"Was it good?"

"It was… emotional. He said many things that he'd been waiting to say… then he said things I didn't think he could bring himself to say ever. In my prayers I hoped for forgiveness from the goddesses, but they paled in comparison to my son's. When I took up your contract, I revelled in the thought of it being my last mission. If I failed, there would be no difference, as I didn't want to continue living anyway. Now I have someone to come back to, and I don't intend on disappointing him."

"I'm glad, Thane," Miranda felt herself smiling without it being deliberate, "You're a good man."

The Drell chuckled, "However untrue, I appreciate the kind words. I will not take any more of your time," he stood up and bowed ever so slightly before turning for the door.

Miranda remembered a message the Illusive Man sent her earlier, "Ummm, Thane?"

He turned around expectantly and Miranda continued, "When you joined the crew, you mentioned that you had a contract on Mr. Baker. Is that contract still valid?"

The alien nodded and Miranda puckered her lips a touch, letting her head rest on her hands, "How problematic would it be to let go of the bounty?"

"Aria knows better than to alienate me but I must warn you, others will take my place. Consider the contract abandoned," Thane nodded as he turned once more, "Ms. Lawson."

"Mr. Krios," she answered smiling as she pulled up her report and continued writing.

…


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10, enjoy!**

 **All content of this fic is owned by Bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Garrus waved his fork in the air, accentuating what he said, "So _a Turian patrol_ took down a _Collector ship_?"

Jane frowned at her bowl of oatmeal, "No, they disabled it with the last weapons they were able to deploy. Once their own ship went dark, they fell into a nearby gas giant…"she chewed pensively, going over the briefing she got from the Illusive Man, "but maybe the Collectors are still there, or we could scan if they fell in but… I don't know, maybe it's relatively intact?"

"Wouldn't we get caught by Turian reinforcements? Why are they not all over it already?" Nicolas asked, sipping on a cup of coffee. He recoiled as the hot liquid burned his upper lip.

"The Illusive Man intercepted the messages and has been feeding the Hierarchy fake reports," Shepard muttered. Her suspicions were perfectly mirrored by the rest of the squad, everyone was frowning at their plates.

Garrus wasn't buying it, "The Man must be hiding something. First of all, I can't believe a Turian patrol would disable a Collector ship. You remember the GARDIAN lasers couldn't take down the one in Horizon."

She shrugged. It was the best lead they had on any form of intel regarding the Omega 4 Relay, "Whether he's hiding something or not, we can't pass up on the chance of getting a closer look at the Collectors. If there's anything that can help us get through the Omega 4, it'll be in there."

"When'll we be there, Joker?" Nicolas turned to look at the pilot. Surprisingly, he'd decided to join for breakfast in the mess hall instead of the cockpit.

He hummed while he chewed, waiting for his mouth to be empty. He covered his mouth with his hand as he asked with a muffled voice, "EDI, how many jumps were we making?"

"We arrived at the Eagle nebula this morning and from here we'll go to Imir, then a few parsecs to the designated system."

The pilot nodded and turned to Nicolas, his hand still covering his mouth, "We'll be there tonight when the crew shift changes."

There was a general murmur starting around the table. Everyone thought a disabled Collector ship sounded unreal. Everyone became still when Miranda came around the corner of her room towards the mess hall. Shepard spoke up so the operative wouldn't realise she was being stared at, "If we're there to gather intel, I'm gonna need all my information experts. Garrus, Mordin, Nicolas, Tali make sure you rest today so you're ready. Thane, Grunt," the Drell and the Krogan looked up from their plates, "extra firepower could come in handy. You'll be joining as well."

…

The system's outermost planet was very dim to the naked eye. A small glint along its equator was barely visible to the crew as the Normandy left FTL with its stealth systems activated. It was deeply terrifying to imagine that even when the whole gas giant was in view, the collector ship was still visible. Enormous wasn't descriptive enough of the enemy's scale.

"No sign of the Turian patrol," EDI spoke through the cockpit's speakers. The whole crew had gathered there and a couple of deck hands that were turning in for the night came to look as well, "If the gas giant swallowed them, it was more than a day ago."

"The Collectors were surely discharging," Nicolas muttered uneasily, "otherwise the Turians would never have disabled a ship that big."

Garrus wanted to defend his people's pride, but he agreed with Nicolas and said nothing. No Turian patrol could take them on without reinforcements, let alone public scrutiny.

As the Normandy drew closer, everyone went absolutely silent, as if they were afraid of waking up the big bad Collectors. A long cable going from the disabled ship down to the dark swirling clouds below came into view. Nicolas nudged Garrus and pointed at it silently.

EDI piped up once more, "The ship has a crater on its hull consistent with ones that GARDIAN turrets make. This is possibly the same ship that was on Horizon."

Shepard's eyebrows knitted together. She didn't know what to think now, other than it was time to go. "Strike team, we're off," she announced quietly but clearly as she turned for the elevator, followed by Garrus, Nicolas, Thane, Grunt, Tali and Mordin, "better do this quick before we end up falling into the planet."

…

Their footsteps echoed down the 'hangar' they landed in as they jumped off the Kodiak, guns raised. Slowly, they straightened and opened short range channels.

"No one's here," Shepard looked at her omnitool sceptically, but it was undeniable. There weren't even electric flows behind the walls. The ship was effectively shut down and empty.

"It'll be a bit harder to find a terminal, then," Tali muttered as she started walking down towards the end of the opening on the side of the ship, followed by the rest. The Kodiak whined one last time as the engine entered standby mode.

The walls seemed to be made of a shiny epoxy or hardened sap. It was murky but through some of the walls, in the distance, yellow lights were visible. They were surely bioluminescent because the omnitool sensors certainly didn't pick them up. The floor was covered in rust-like sand that left shallow footprints as they went deeper into the ship, going through an archway into a broad corridor.

The Quarian stopped dead in her tracks and Shepard lifted her gun as she caught up, "What the hell is that?"

"Tar- maybe oil or some form of omnigel, interesting" Mordin mused as he knelt beside the river of black liquid slowly flowing further in the dark corridor into a hole on the ground. He took a sample and put it in a small vial, "would suggest following. Might lead to a place of interest."

As the squad walked deeper into the vessel, the corridor opened up to a larger chamber. At first the group's flashlights weren't able to reach the far wall, so they walked straight into the chamber, following the river of fluid. Other paths on the ground led into the river, but they seemed to have been empty for a while, appearing to be completely dry. Nicolas brought his flashlight down from the void ahead and illuminated a row of pods up ahead.

The squad approached silently and recognized the pods present in Horizon. These were empty, but one of them was the origin of the black river. Inside was a pool of the liquid and nothing else.

The squad looked to Mordin as the Salarian hovered over the clear epoxy covering the pod waiting for some sort of insight, "…perhaps it is a cleaning agent."

No one spoke against him, they all feared the same thing: the goo used to be a human. Grunt huffed and walked away, then his eye was caught by a glint in the distance. He pointed his flashlight in the direction and called out, "Shepard…"

Jane did the same as Grunt and with wide eyes walked past the row of pods. The floor ended on a cliff a few meters further and she illuminated downwards and made a beeline for where the Krogan was pointing. Pods lined the walls of the larger chamber that spanned further than their flashlights could illuminate.

"There's thousands," she gasped.

"I've found an electric current," Nicolas announced, his omnitool dimmed to the minimum, "It's along the edge. Probably at a pod that hasn't finished doing what it's doing yet."

"Let's go, then," Shepard murmured as she tailed Nicolas, the rest of the squad behind them. They spotted a pod that was lit up from the inside. As they gathered around, their suspicions seemed to be confirmed. It was essentially the same as a regular husk, but this one shone blood red and the black goo reached its sides.

Before anyone could make a remark, the pod shut off and all traces of electric currents going through it died out immediately. Grunt began to pace in the darkness. He looked around and huffed, "A fight is coming… It's coming closer…"

"Keep it together, Grunt," Nicolas cautioned as he brought up his omnitool again, "There's more activity, but it's down there."

He pointed his assault rifle at the sea of pods and activated his laser sight, pointing out a spot in the further reaches of the massive chamber. Shepard didn't need to say anything this time, as the squad slowly jumped off the platform to walk among the pods towards where Nicolas had pointed out.

…

As they drew closer, their flashlight's aggregate beams were able to light up what looked like a terminal in the darkness. Nicolas jogged between the pods until he reached the small pedestal with a dormant aerogel screen on top.

"It's here," he was about to reach for it when he hesitated, "This has to be an ambush. There's nothing but pods around us."

"There's no where they could hide. All the pods are empty," Grunt snapped, impatient.

Shepard pushed past the two to stand before the terminal. She looked back at her squad, "Ambush or not, it's all we've got."

She hovered her hand above it and her omnitool lit up as EDI remotely tried to start the lone platform. A deafening wind washed over the chamber as the foreign atmosphere vented towards one end of the ship. The vacuum they were now in suddenly seemed to light up as everyone's vision was blinded by a flash. The following darkness was total as all electronics died with the light.

In the pitch black, Jane felt around and found the platform she'd activated. The clack of a gloved hand startled her as it took a hold of her head and a helmet came into contact with her visor. It was Nicolas. His voice carried through his helmet's walls to hers, "That was an EMP. All electronics are dead."

Soon, their eyes accustomed to the almost non-existent light and they all made a gesture, _comms are dead._ Soon, the omnitool systems rebooted and Hal's voice crackled through Baker's translator, "-ks-Looks like that prosthetic upgrade came in handy after all. You can thank me later. The Ship is rebooting. Expect anything."

A deep thump rushed through the Collector vessel as a far-away Eezo core reactivated. A wave of blue light rushed through the floor underneath and around them from bow to stern. As the wave washed over the crew, they were pulled to the ground by the gravitational wave. Baker's legs squeaked in protest as the prosthetics fought against the weight. His bones held their weight all the way up to his shoulders, but his human arm drooped down for a split second before being let go of the mass effect wave.

"Alright," Shepard grunted as she got back up, "We're getting out of here. Garrus, set an antenna and a remote charge. Omnitool transfer won't be fast enough."

The Turian knelt beside the terminal and flash forged a thin metal wire. He attached it to the side and configured omnigel to use the wire as an antenna, broadcasting a signal of the screen interface. Beside it, he stuck a plastic explosive charge and ran after the team, Shepard at the lead.

"We set up a wireless, EDI. Begin the data-mine."

"On it, Shep-" EDI's voice was suddenly cut off.

Joker's voice came on the radio, "Lucky us, the thing isn't in charge of comms… Commander, EDI's been hacked. I'm restarting her now. The Collector vessel, by the way, is starting up, in case you hadn't noticed. Whatever you did, you pissed them off."

"She'll be fine," Hal spoke through Nicolas' translator, "I was able to see it, she should be able to keep it under control."

"I'm back, Jeff," EDI's voice came through the radio channel a moment later. "I've quarantined the program. Commencing data-mining."

A flash of light burst from one of the pods as a sniper round made a small crater on its transparent wall. The thud of the projectile making impact carried through the floor, up the squad's armour. They all dove for cover as Shepard spoke through the radio, urgency in her tone but her volume controlled, "As long as there's only snipers, run in twos. We'll rendezvous at the pod with the cleaning agent," the squad dispersed among the pods as sniper fire lit up the dark hall.

"Keep an eye on the antenna, so we blow it at the right time," Shepard panted as she slapped Grunt's shoulder and motioned for him to follow.

It wasn't long before it was impossible to keep an eye on the other pairs without using the sniper impacts for reference. Shepard looked up and saw the snipers in question, approaching slowly on a levitating hexagonal platform. Slapping Grunt on the shoulder, she pointed in the Collector's direction. The Krogan's mischievous grunt carried through the radio as he pulled a heavy weapon from his back. As he set it down, stakes extended from the barrel, pinning it to the ground. A holo-display came to life on its side and Grunt deftly aimed the weapon before releasing a white line of light. The railgun munition shredded through the platform and it illuminated the giant hall as it flashed in the vacuum of the ship and shrapnel showered the pods.

"Hopefully the next batch will come by when the gun's recharged," Grunt laughed as he lifted the red-hot gun and attached it to his shoulder holster.

Joker's voice came through everyone's radio, "Guys. The Collector's thrusters are powering up. I'll be staying in their blind spot, but you have to get to the Kodiak _NOW_."

"How's the datamine?" Shepard spat back as she reached the half-full pod and extended her assault rifle to look at the antenna. With her scope, she panned down the chamber and saw tens of platforms floating towards the active terminal. Collector sniper fire started coming their way, "Guys, get to the rendezvous on the double!"

"Almost done, Shepard," EDI's answer came, "In a few minutes I'll have everything on their on-board computers."

"You don't have minutes, EDI. We can't let them get to the wireless," Garrus' voice came through the radio, "If they can interface with you, we don't know what could happen."

Shepard looked at the terminal she'd activated as her squad appeared from the sea of pods. A platform landed right beside it and the aliens jumped off, scrambling for the antenna. She clenched her teeth, knowing that getting all the information was a lost cause, "Garrus, blow it now."

The vibrations from the explosion carried through the chamber walls as the whole squad ran for the Kodiak. Their footsteps were silent in the vacuum, but a buzz began to carry through the floor and up their boots. Rounding a corner, Shepard saw the Mako completely covered in the epoxy of the walls, with a swarm of Collector's and their small flying drones crawling over it. She pulled herself back and the squad gathered around her before she shook her head and motioned for them to head back.

"The Kodiak is a no-go. Program it to self-destruct, EDI."

Tali poked her head around the corner before following the squad back towards the chamber. She almost dropped her pistol on the way there. They had nowhere to go.

"How the hell are we getting out then?" Grunt shouted through the radio, "It's not like there's any shuttle we can take."

The exploding Kodiak sent out a shockwave that rattled the floor of the tunnel as the squad entered the chamber. This time, they ran along the wall into the darkness, turning off anything they had that was luminous to avoid the Collectors spotting them. Hopefully, any enemy forces would head straight for the newly exploded Kodiak.

"I've been able to salvage the schematics of the Collector ship, Shepard. It would be possible to extract you from the ship's discharge cable."

Numerous scoffs and rueful laughs sounded through the radio channel. Shepard spoke up, answering EDI, "Enough! We make for the discharge cable and we'll take it from there. We stay together and don't engage unless we're fired upon!"

"That's ten goddamn minutes away," Nicolas began to shout until he'd realised his microphone was muted, "Hal, _what the fuck_ are you doing with my mic?"

"You're not helping with your pessimism, Baker. I think the Collectors aren't out to kill you, I think they want you alive."

The squad followed Shepard into a dark corridor, trusting the navigation waypoints EDI had forwarded to them. Hal continued as Nicolas didn't answer, "The console that Shepard activated was in the centre of the ship. No one was hit by the sniper rounds earlier and we haven't encountered any Collectors since the Mako blew up. They want to trap us, like the colonists on Horizon."

"Then why haven't they come for us yet?" Baker stuck to the back of the squad so no one would become suspicious of his silence.

"Maybe it's just easier waiting for you to get tired. You'll fight back less. They also probably realized you've found a way to avoid their swarms," Hal's tone seemed to be solemn, wary of the eeriness of his claim, "I'll look into a way to keep them from retracting the discharge cable, or we're all _fucked_."

With a final crackle, Nicolas noticed that his microphone came back to life and he picked up the pace to stay with the squad. The buzz of the Collectors carried through the floor, up their boots, but the ship remained in a vacuum and the enemy stayed out of sight.

Grunt's grumble came through the radio, "I don't know about you, but my oxygen tanks are gonna be empty soon."

Shepard kicked herself and looked at her HUD, _5%_. Her heart began to pick up the pace as the fall to Alchera flashed in her mind, "It's only a few minutes to the cable. Keep calm and we'll get there in time."

They were getting close when Nicolas' helmet screeched with an alarm and his visor began to fog. Oxygen was all but gone. A strong whirr shook the floor and the squad came up to an opening leading outside the hull. The cable was retracting into the ship right in front of them at blistering speeds. Nicolas gasped for air as he turned off his mic, "Hal…now might be the time to… look into stopping… the cable?"

"I'm on it. I think I can do something with what they used against EDI. Hook the omnitool up to that console over there, at the side of the opening."

Baker did as instructed as nausea filled his gut and droplets of water went down his visor. He turned on his mic and asked Garrus to put explosive charges on the cable as it stopped moving and the rest of the squad ran along it, distancing themselves from the giant ship. Nicolas stumbled onto the cable once he was able to snap the flash forged interface between his omnitool and the console. It took him several exhausting seconds to reach the rest. Below them, they could see the swirling typhoons of hydrogen and helium, shimmering dim blue from the distant sun's light.

Black spots filled Nicolas' vision as the last of the oxygen ran out and he tripped forward. His face never reached the cable as Garrus blew the charges at the base, severing the link between the cable and the ship. Everyone became weightless as they fell with the discharge cable towards the gas giant's raging storms.

…

Nicolas woke up with a start as the emergency release of his visor hissed and suddenly the noises of the Normandy's cargo bay flooded his consciousness. His eyelids fought to open against the piercing lights of the ship's interior as his hearing returned and Shepard's voice reached his mind clearly and crisp, "Strike team, we meet at the conference room. Now."

Baker got up with a start, gasping for air as he wiped his face with gloved hands. He shook the last of the queasiness away before following the squad to the elevator. Out of the corner of his eye, he was able to make out the troubled stare of Miranda but he chose not to look and make eye contact with the Cerberus agent.

It was a silent ride up the elevator and into the conference room. Once the door closed, Shepard turned to Garrus and Tali, "Make sure we can't be heard or recorded."

The two nodded and opened their omnitools. Garrus produced a small black box that when activated emitted a high pitched whistle. Grunt squinted for a second but his face returned to normal after a few seconds and both Garrus and Tali nodded at Shepard, confident that the room was sealed.

"Cerberus set us up. They knew full well we were walking into an ambush," Grunt's voice started as a low growl but it got louder with each word, "I stand with you, Shepard. Not those who would use us as cannon fodder!" He finished with a shout and an accusatory finger pointed at the door.

"I think we all follow Shepard," Garrus sighed as he slumped into a chair, "But we need Cerberus for info and funds."

"That's not entirely true," Nicolas mused, pushing his fingers against his eyes, staving off a headache. The squad turned their attention to him and he continued, "We might be able to tap into Cerberus information databases with Liara's help… or Miranda, if she-"

"You can't seriously think that _she_ would have our backs if we left Cerberus?" Tali interrupted incredulous, "She's practically the Illusive Man's eyes and ears in this ship! Not to mention that AI."

"I stand with Mr. Baker on this," Thane spoke up for the first time in what seemed like days, "Ms. Lawson seems deceptively empathic, and her loyalty to Cerberus could be strong only until she's presented with a logical reason to part ways."

"I should rip your brainwashed head off, Drell!" Grunt stood up from his chair, "It's clear she'd betray us as soon as we mentioned leaving Cerberus behind. She's nothing but a mindless drone made to manipulate us."

"Alright, alright!" Shepard snapped. The room fell silent again. Shepard took a breath and began to pace at the head of the table, "We don't know how close to the chest the Illusive Man kept the whole Collector story. Let's not start jumping at each other's throats, not before we see this through."

She sighed and regarded the squad. No one seemed to be hurt, and everyone's armour was clean. Maybe the Collectors _did_ want them alive. For what reason, they'd have to consult EDI. It was still unknown how much information they had actually been able to recover. As things were, they were still in need of Cerberus' help.

"We have to stay with Cerberus until we have all the cards in our hands. If they suspect we'll mutiny, they'll cut our wings or start taking steps to blackmail us down the line. We can't let that happen. For now, we cooperate and we make the best out of what we have," she leaned on the table, resting her palms on the edge, "Now we need to debrief. See what we've learned. Garrus, Tali, we're done with the jamming."

Without missing a beat, Joker's voice came through the intercom, "Commander, the Illusive Man wants to talk to you."

"Tell him he can wait, Joker. We're going to go over what we learned from the datamine. EDI, could you do us the honours?"

"There's a lot to unpack, Shepard. I'll begin with the obvious…"

…

Jane let herself fall on her chair at her desk. With a shaky grip, she let her bottle of liquor rest on the floor. Putting her head in her hands, she took slow, laboured breaths. The Collectors were so close, yet so far. Just knowing that the Collector base was on the other side of the Omega 4 Relay was excruciating with the added knowledge that they weren't able to datamine the Friend or Foe identifier code from the enemy's databanks. They'd have to wait until the next Collector sighting for another chance to obtain it, and who knows how many more innocents would fall victim to the Collectors before that happened. She didn't even know if she'd be able to face them again. It was always the same ship. The one that killed her, the one at Freedom's Progress, the one at Horizon; all the same one. They'd hit it with GARDIAN turrets and they didn't show signs of being hurt to the point that now they were toying with her, playing dead, setting traps. For all she knew, EDI might've datamined a bunch of garbage. The Omega 4 relay might be just another piece of bait to trap them once more.

She reached for the bottle on the floor as a tear of frustration fell off her cheek. Her chair felt incredibly uncomfortable all of a sudden so she paced up and down the room with the bottle in her hand, taking large gulps and sighing as the alcohol burned her throat.

…

Nicolas sat at the workbench fixing the emergency circuits of his helmet, replacing the visor as Hal rambled in his ear.

"How else could the Collectors appear and disappear so efficiently? The Friend-Foe identifier has to explain that, their ability to use the Relays at larger distances or with more accuracy, and you know what? I think the Reapers could do the same. We know they share technology."

Nicolas huffed with annoyance and tapped a message on his omnitool, _So what? We don't have any leads on getting the IFF now. The Collectors are gone, and they are playing us. You saw what Mordin found out._

"Yeah, they might want to goo all of you, but that's not 100% a bad thing! Now you know that they want you close, and we have more info on them than they think… I have gathered a bunch of data as well! We've established that I can hack into their ship and take control of smaller functions and they don't know that yet! For once, we have the upper hand because they don't know how much _we_ know. Now, about the IFF. The core of the Galaxy is full of black holes and dying stars. The IFF _has to_ be an augmented Relay navigation system, not just a gate opener. If it's as I say, and the IFF is for unlocking some extended Relay functionality, who knows what we'd be able to do with other Relays that aren't the Omega 4?"

 _I don't know Hal. I just hope Cerberus doesn't get us killed before we can get the IFF. I also hope that the rest of the crew doesn't drop the ball with keeping The Illusive Man on our side._

Nicolas' helmet's HUD came to life as he tested the replaced circuits and soon EDI's voice crackled through its speakers, "Mr. Baker, the Commander asks if you have cigarettes on you, and if you'd go up to her quarters."

…

Miranda frowned at the message on her terminal's screen. She felt betrayed, put on the spot by the person who'd given her everything and had now made her lose face with the first group of people she had begun to care about.

 _Shepard and the crew she brought on the Collector ship may have realised that I fed her false information. It seems that they are not aware that we knew it was a trap. Despite the fact that they have not been explicit about their suspicions, we cannot rely on that assumption. It is up to you to gain their trust once more, as this situation may arise again._

The message window closed automatically as the door to her room whooshed open, admitting Thane. Miranda felt a knot form in her throat as a small frown washed over his features for a split second before a practiced calmness took over.

"Do you have a moment, Ms. Lawson?"

"Yes, Thane. Is something up?" her tone was upbeat and unassuming. She had to act like the mission was as much of a success as it could be.

"Nothing at all. I wished to share a few words," he swayed from side to side for a second before breaking the silence once more, "It was a strenuous mission for the crew. Mr. Vakarian must be distraught that he no longer has a Kodiak to tune."

Miranda cracked a genuine smile, she didn't know the Drell had a sense of humour, "He'll find something else to tweak before we receive the new one. Was it strenuous for you?"

Thane sighed, before looking up to the Cerberus agent and maintaining eye contact, "I said the last time we talked that I had something new to live for. Seeing my son once the mission was over. I think my previous feelings of being at peace with dying in action have returned. If our odds of survival are worse than what happened today, perhaps I should not trouble myself with the sense of responsibility of coming back alive to see my son. I was calm on the Collector ship, and I am calm right now. My resolve hasn't changed."

Miranda bit her lip guiltily, "If we prepare as much as we can, we'll come back from this, Thane. You'll see your son again."

He smiled ruefully, "And you will see your sister," with that, he turned to leave, "Goodnight, Ms. Lawson."

"Mr. Krios."

When the door whooshed closed, Miranda put her head in her hands as she started to shake, barely being able to hold back the stress pressing at her skull. It felt like Thane had been interrogating her.

…

"I brought cigarettes!" Nicolas called out as the door to Shepard's quarters slid open. The elevator smelled of alcohol and it only got stronger as he entered.

"Great! Come siddown," came the response from the sofa.

He found her with the bottle half empty, resting on a coaster on the table in front of her. She was resting her head in her hands and surprisingly didn't seem drunk. Without saying anything, she extended a hand with two fingers stretched out. Nicolas deposited a cigarette in them and took out one for himself before activating the omnitool's lighter function.

"How the hell are we gonna do this, Baker?" Shepard let out a long sigh that carried a large cloud of smoke. It was quickly sucked in through the ventilation system.

"We just have to wait for them to play dead again and we just take the new Kodiak. This time we all bring railguns, though."

She scoffed and shook her head, "I'd like to see that work."

She pursed her lips and looked at Baker for a moment before offering her bottle, which he took happily. She looked down at the floor as she heard the alcohol bubbling down into his mouth, "There's something in my head that keeps telling me we're fucked."

"But we always pull through," Nicolas smacked his lips after the big gulp he'd taken, "and we've had zero casualties. I see today as a win. We learned a lot and no one's lost a limb."

"You and your _goddamn_ optimism," she sighed.

He shrugged and took another gulp. A few seconds later, he felt his arm being pushed. He looked to the side and saw her closed fist retracting from his prosthetic. Despite her defeated features, she was smiling. He nudged her back and returned the smile along with the bottle.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11, enjoy!**

 **All content of this fic is owned by Bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Baker huffed with annoyance at the roaring going on within the new Kodiak. While Shepard was in Omega with most of the crew, he'd been sent to Pragia with Jack to take care of something from her past. As soon as they were done, they'd take the Normandy back to Sahrabarik to pick Shepard and the rest up. The idea of her going to Aria for information made him nauseous and he kicked himself for not having stopped Morinth back in Illium when he had the chance. _That Ardat-Yakshi absolutely_ _ **had**_ _to resurface on Omega_ , he fumed internally.

The Kodiak swerved under a gust of wind and the roaring of the almost apocalyptic rain outside grew stronger. He remembered when he was in the cargo hold with Shepard and Jack showed up asking for the Kodiak and a nuke. It was only natural that she wouldn't allow Jack to go alone, so now he was on babysitting duty. It was a short travel between Omega and the Dakka system. Two main jumps and a few hours of FTL cruising meant that he could read up on the files Jack had prepared to show Shepard for her petition. Pragia had once been a normal inhabitable world until humans came along. After some uncredited insertions of exotic wildlife, the whole planet's ecosystem was disrupted, and now plants grew fast enough that it was visible to the naked eye, overrunning any local life form trying to survive. It ended up ruining the weather too, and now it was raining non-stop with thick, heavy drops across the entirety of the equator, hence the roaring of the Kodiak's hull.

He looked across the small cabin at Jack. She was talking to herself, but it was impossible to make out anything over the deafening rain. He put his helmet on to muffle the noise out as much as he could and he talked to Hal, who was interfacing with the Kodiak.

"How long until touch down?"

"If the weather conditions don't get any worse, which they can't, we'll be there in a minute," Hal seemed cheerful. It was a quiet mission, relatively speaking.

"How does it look down there, at the facility?"

"Optical scans showed that the building has some anti-vegetation systems still active, keeping the vines from overtaking the landing pad. Its water disposal structures are also still good, so the place isn't flooded. Cerberus definitely made that place to last. It's a shame we're levelling it- that is some solid architecture."

"Any wildlife we should be concerned with?"

"No, the planet is completely covered in vegetation, and most of it is poisonous. The most dangerous wildlife you'll find here are insects, and they don't come close to the equator anyway… not with this rain. Oh, hold on."

"What's up?"

Hal's voice came through the cabin speakers this time, bringing Jack to attention, "We have several heat signatures in the lower levels of the building. I doubt Cerberus' surveillance systems are online, so we should be able to land without alerting anyone, or anything."

Jack blew a raspberry before smirking, "If there's no vehicles on the landing pad, it's probably pirates camping out while the rest of them are out doing pirate stuff."

"Aaand, touchdown," Hal announced as the Kodiak's door opened.

The rain outside was so heavy and thick that it was hard to see the entrance to the building only five meters away. As the two walked out of the shuttle, they could feel the constant shower pushing their shoulders down. Once they were inside, their suits dripped as if they'd been washed by bucketfuls of water even after they'd walked under the roof.

"This is the only way out of the facility. The jungle'll eat you up," Jack mused.

"And you think the pirates downstairs would let their partners leave them completely stranded like that?" Nicolas looked at Jack incredulously.

"Sometimes there _is_ honour among thieves, Baker. You've had bad experiences, is all."

…

Shepard seethed as the woman cried, her only child victim to the Ardat Yakshi's ill intentions. Paintings done on bent pieces of monofilm hung on the walls, sculptures of foamed omnigel stood at a vacant desk in the corner, never to be touched again.

The mother wailed at the realisation that she was alone in Omega. It was now only a matter of time before the scum of the station saw her in her state of vulnerability and reacted. Kasumi bit her lip, predicting the woman would be vorcha fodder in a couple of weeks at best.

Samara stalked out of the apartment. She felt the mother had realised her daughter was dead when she walked in. She should've hidden her investigation attitude. Humans can be extremely perceptive when family is involved. She opened her communications VI and searched for Aria's contact.

It wasn't long before she got an answer, "I heard you found the grieving mother, Sam. Any promising leads?"

Her lower eyelid twitched, anger bubbling at Aria's non-chalant attitude, "The girl was exactly what Morinth likes. Artistic, innocent… she's here alright. Keep an eye on Afterlife's entrance. She should be getting hungry again soon."

Aria's tone became sultry after a short laugh, " _Please and thank you_ , Sammy… You never learned to talk nice to people."

Samara didn't stutter at the cloaked threat, "You _owe_ me, T'Loak."

"Not anymore, I don't," her tone changed back to serious, making Samara more at ease. Now there wasn't any more to read into, "I'll ping you when she shows up."

…

Hal warned Nicolas of the heat signatures in the floors below. The AI couldn't read any weapons signals or omnitools in the vicinity, making him remember how an old friend had used pre-mass effect weapons to go undetected. He checked the ammo block in his rifle, a nervous tic that had recently started developing in him when a mission was excessively quiet. The two took a flight of stairs, coming out to a veranda overlooking a large hall. The stairs continued downwards, but they stopped to survey the heat signatures below. They were people, sitting around on whatever could be used as seats. There were rocks the size of cars and concrete slabs that seemed as if they had been ripped from the walls, iron rebar sticking out of their ends where the people would rest against as well. Terran foliage grew in a small centre garden, with one of the people watering the plants meticulously.

Nicolas muted his helmet and spoke through the radio, "Those aren't pirates. There's no signs of weapons."

"They should've spotted us by now. Something's wrong with them."

"Should we try talking to them?"

Jack turned around to regard Nicolas, "What's the point? We're blowing this place up anyway. They don't matter."

Nicolas shook his head and decided not to answer as they started creeping down the next flight of stairs.

Soon, they were standing at the entrance to the centre garden, at eye level with the people. Nicolas, fed up with the awkward situation, took off his helmet and spoke up, "Hello! Do y'all talk?"

While the 'locals' didn't answer, Jack was startled by Nicolas' sudden shout and glowed blue for half a second.

Some of the locals reacted, wrinkling their foreheads and looking around, as if they could smell something burning. One of them slowly approached Jack with curious eyes. She frowned at the man and began to glow again, ready to push him away. It was then that the man chose to speak.

"Subject Zero?"

"What the fuck?"

…

"And this is where the mercs would hide before they'd walk out onto the bridge over there," Garrus pointed at the scorch marks where the trash wall had been on the days leading up to him reuniting with the Normandy's crew. Across the bridge, the windows of the old mansion had been boarded up, but the holes in the walls from the gunship's miniguns remained. The house had become a small vorcha colony in the weeks after they'd left. Garrus' mandibles tightened around his face in grim expression when he remembered that he was never able to recover his old team's bodies.

Grunt grunted, "They weren't very smart at all, funnelling themselves into a shooting range like that."

"Explains how Mr. Vakarian lasted for so long. Would've been impossible to resist against competent attackers," Mordin chipped in.

The turian scoffed, "I like to think I reduced their options to a desperate plan rather than they were idiots to begin with. Anyways, you'd think Shepard would've found Mordin by now, right?"

Jacob opened his omnitool, "Her locator _does_ say she's at Afterlife."

Garrus called a sky taxi as the Cerberus agent spoke. He suddenly didn't want the memories to come back anymore, "maybe we should go keep an eye on the situation and get a few drinks?"

It was a few moments before the group saw a skycar break off from the traffic a few hundred meters above and head in their direction. A second one caught up and they all piled into the two taxis. The ride up Omega's levels was uneventful save for Mordin giving a small lesson on Ardat Yakshi's at Tali's request.

"I wonder why they don't allow for gene therapy in those cases. The Migrant Fleet has become very skilled at erasing genetic disorders even within the womb," Tali spoke after chewing on what Mordin had said.

Mordin massaged his chin as everyone got off the taxis and walked towards Afterlife, "The asari government has always been opposed to gene therapy. It's the longest standing debate between them and salarians."

Jacob walked up to the krogan bouncer, spearheading the group, "Aria said we could come in freely, we're with Shepard."

The bouncer hummed, looking the human from head to toe before stepping aside wordlessly. The group followed Jacob into the tunnel of lights and out to the dance floor. Immediately, Mordin broke off and headed for the bar.

Garrus chuckled and spoke up so the rest could hear them, "I'll go to the bar as well. We look like idiots all huddled up on the dance floor."

Jacob called out to the Turian over the music, "weren't we going to keep an eye on-"

Garrus shut him up by glaring at the human and pointing at a balcony above them. Through the strobe and the beams of colourful light, he could see the red of Shepard's hair and beside her, an asari.

…

She turned around to face away from Morinth and rolled her eyes before downing her drink. She understood how her centuries of partying and bohemian living could impress the teenager who'd fallen victim to her, but Jane had gone through too much in her career to swoon for drug-laden edginess. She felt the Ardat Yakshi's dark eyes clamouring for her to turn back around.

"You sure can drink…" the asari's tone was somewhat surprised but still remained husky.

Shepard held the glass over the balcony's edge and let go of it. She wiped her mouth as she pulled Morinth towards the VIP dance floor. She spoke at a measured level she knew Morinth could hear, "I always end up getting bored of the club-feeling. Too many idiots come hoping to get lucky and not to have a good time. House-parties, on the other hand… It's a lot easier to know whether you'll like the people who are coming… and fun things are easier to come by."

"We should go to my place. I ought to have some fun things left."

"Hopefully it's better than Kromby."

Morinth laughed and lead Shepard away from the dance floor without saying anything. Jane gave a bored look down the balcony at the non-VIP dance floor. She was able to see Kasumi who nodded at her and activated her omnitool.

…

"We knew you would come back!" the man beamed at Jack, who remained silent, her mind racing to understand the situation.

Nicolas shuffled off to the side, uncomfortable at the clearly unhinged man. He sighed with relief when he saw that the rest were still acting like nothing had happened, lounging around and taking care of the plants. It would've been a much more uneasy situation if more people approached Jack, she seemed jittery enough as it was.

"It's ok if you don't feel like saying anything. I'm pretty much the only one who still talks… but they listen, don't you?"

There was a grunt from one of the people resting on a slab of concrete. The man chuckled and pointed at him, "Fifteen still talks sometimes. Things got harder once you left, Zero."

"Who the hell are you?" Jack spoke up with a dry throat. She had a small fit of coughs before the man spoke.

"I'm subject 40. We were all here with you, until ten over there began the riots," 40 pointed over at a small skeleton lying against a wall, "I think he didn't make it out of the facility when the rest of us escaped."

"The riots… when I escaped?"

"We all escaped, thanks to ten. All the scientist died for what they did to us, they made us live in hell… but it was quickly clear that the rest of the galaxy was just as horrible a place, right?" 40 grinned at Jack.

"S-so you came back?" Jack stuttered at first.

"Not all of us at once," the man laughed. "But eventually every last one of us came to the realisation that without the scientists here, this place isn't too bad."

Jack looked at Nicolas with eyes that signalled an imminent breakdown, "Go get the thing."

Nicolas nodded as he turned to leave. 40 gave Jack a quizzical look, "What thing?"

"My belongings. He offered to help get me here."

Nicolas put on his helmet and addressed Hal as he walked up the stairs, "Get me a feed on her mic, I want to know what he has to say."

The roar of the rain outside died down as Jack's mic feed was played over active noise cancelling.

"Do you remember where my cell was?"

"Why, of course! You had it the cosiest, down in the basement, beside the morgue and the lab."

There were a few seconds of silence before Jack spoke up again, "there was a morgue here?"

Nicolas could hear forty's sigh, "The drugs they tried on us where not made for children… or adults either, I guess. Overdoses took several of us and sometimes the fights were too harsh- you were the strongest of us all. 5, 8, 10, 11, 33, 34, 35, 36 and 37 are there, the freeze chambers still work."

Baker let out a rueful laugh, of course the others had it just as bad as her. Jack spoke up again, "They made me do it, use my biotics against you."

"They forced us to fight as well. We didn't want to alienate you, but they had us so full of drugs that we were out of it most of the time. Here is your room."

"That's- that's…"

"A mirror, yes. When we came back we realised they had kept you separated from us. I mean, we were all isolated to a certain extent, but you only came out to fight."

Nicolas heard Jack laugh once, "I thought you all ignored me all this time."

"Nonsense, we were all in it together… speaking of, about the man you came with."

"What about him?"

Nicolas breathed in, holding his breath unconsciously. He walked out of the facility into the Kodiak as he heard the man speak, "he's not one of us. While he was kind enough to bring you here, we can't let the Galaxy know this place exists. This is ours and ours alone, Zero."

He huffed as he lugged the nuke off the Kodiak, the case clanking harshly against the floor. _Why does everybody want me dead?_

Jack missed a beat before speaking again, "Let me take care of him. He's done a lot for me. I'll get rid of the shuttle as well."

…

Samara's words were getting harder and harder to remember as the door to Morinth's apartment closed behind her.

 _She is a monster, and she will take the slightest chance she gets to entice you. Don't let your guard down, Shepard. It will be the last thing you do. Ardat Yakshis are master manipulators. They are master manipulators… master…_

"You said you wanted something better than Kromby?"

Shepard snapped out of the thought of Samara and drowsily looked at Morinth. She hadn't even drank that much, why was she so dizzy? The asari drew near, almost floating, according to Shepard's hazy vision.

 _She is a monster, she is a monster… Let your guard down, Shepard. It'll be the best thing you could do. Ardat Yakshis are masters of…_

"Love… What? Something better than Kromby, yes. Do you have something to wash it down with? Maybe Serrice Ice… yes." Shepard accepted the glass with blue liquid and downed the pill, forgetting why she was trying to stall the asari in the first place, but trusting her gut. "Morinth, tell me…" she smacked her lips, looking around, "what is that statue?"

"It's something a friend of mine made for me."

"Is he still making sculptures like that? I'd very much like one," she giggled, a warm feeling in her stomach started to bubble.

" _She_ \- passed away recently… humans can be so short lived."

Something clicked in Shepard's mind. She looked at her locked omnitool, seeing a small message icon. Touching it, she was able to make out the words: _Move away from the door._

Before she could react, the door to the apartment blew inwards, shattering the glass window on the other side of the living room. Morinth glowed blue and began to float as Samara walked in, her hand raised towards her daughter.

"You did well, Shepard."

"You… you brought her here?" Morinth stuttered before letting out a rueful laugh.

Shepard was half unconscious on the couch, looking at the two wordlessly. Kasumi materialised behind the Justicar with her pistol raised in the direction of the Ardat Yakshi.

"The rest are on their way. Should I shoot her now?" the human asked, but Samara extended a hand towards Kasumi's gun, which she handed over.

The last thing that Jane could remember from that day was Samara calling Joker as most of the Normandy's crew piled in to the apartment. Her mind faded into darkness as she stared into the dead eyes of Morinth, who was sprawled on the floor with a hole between her eyes.

…

Nicolas dragged the bomb in to Jack's room as 40 smiled at him eerily. Jack smirked at the other biotic, "Could you let me have a word with him, 40? We won't be long."

The biotic nodded and left the room, the door whooshing closed behind him. Jack watched him go through the one-way mirror before speaking up, "They want you dead. I'm gonna have to come up with an excuse to get you back up there so we can leave. Arm the bomb while I think."

He looked from Jack to the nuke, then back to Jack again, "So you're going to kill all those innocent people?"

She gave him a weird look as she paced around the room, "Did you see them? Do you think they have anything to live for?"

"I saw them and it looks like they've had enough taken away from them. All things considered it seems like you had it easy compared-"

Nicolas got biotically slammed to the wall. He slid down the wall in a coughing fit as Jack glared at him. He continued after coughing, "They can't even talk anymore, Jack. You pulled through. What gives you the right to kill them?"

"Why the fuck are you acting so high and mighty, Baker? As if you haven't killed innocent people. Remember Omega?"

A guilty frown materialised on his face, "I was doing that to-"

"To what? Find Shepard, bring her back and stop the Collectors? No, what you wanted was to see a corpse to have some closure. You were a horrible person for selfish reasons, stop trying to take the high road. You're not a good person and you're not any better than me," she walked up to him and knelt closer to him so they were at eye-level, "I've read your whole story, you've done nothing righteous on your own, but _do_ you always latch on to other's good deeds. Right now we're on the same moral standing. Now keep your mouth shut, arm the bomb, and I might just be able to keep these guys from popping you before we reach the kodiak."

…

Jack walked out into the rain, letting the shower wash a heavy layer of dried blood off her skin. Nicolas walked out behind her in silence and activated his omnitool, opening the kodiak's door remotely. The two walked in and once they'd sat down, he handed Jack the detonator for the nuclear bomb. Seeing all the blood that still remained on her skin after the rain shower made him swallow a lump in his throat as the blast door closed. Hal interfaced with the shuttle, lifting off and flying towards the Normandy in high-orbit. Jack asked the AI for a camera feed pointing at the Cerberus facility and began to fiddle with the detonator.

"I can't let Cerberus get away with this," Jack muttered.

Baker looked up at her and went over his words carefully before answering, "I think they already did, Jack."

"There's more operations like this, I'm sure. And once I'm back from the Omega 4, I'll blow each and every last one of them to dust."

He gave a rueful chuckle, "that'll be your good deed of the century."

She looked at him with wide, glassy eyes, "you don't understand the suffering Cerberus has caused. I'll blow up every project and put everyone they've ruined out of their misery."

From the Normandy's cockpit, Joker made a flight plan for Omega as he watched the Kodiak draw closer. It was a small black spot in front of the large mushroom cloud that was climbing to Pragia's stratosphere.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12, enjoy!**

 **All content of this fic is owned by Bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Nicolas tossed the pile of armour plates into the washing unit and turned it on. The foam immediately turned pink-reddish from the remnants of blood and slowly turned back to white. He pushed his fingers into his eyes trying to erase the mental image of the carnage Jack had caused… he didn't even need to fire his gun down there.

"It-"

Baker cursed under his breath. He hadn't realised Jack had entered the armoury. He glanced at her before looking away as the biotic unfastened her cargo pants. She picked up her clothes from the floor and tossed them in front of the washing unit.

"It would've been a lot easier if 40 hadn't decided to kill you while you were gone," the sound of her bare feet went towards a closet filled with Cerberus fatigues and other standard clothes. Nicolas looked up and saw her. She was naked but covered in tattoos so densely packed that it looked like she was clothed. She grunted with annoyance before picking out a white bra and a grey pair of pants. "Strange how the rest went from watering plants to full on biotic maniacs so quickly."

"They were conditioned for fighting… like you."

"They weren't like me… they couldn't move on. Cerberus broke them."

The biotic turned around, with as much clothing as he'd ever seen her wear. Most of her tattoos were still visible. It almost seemed like they moved independent of her skin. She was about to continue talking when she caught him staring, "What's up, Baker? I've been here for long enough that the tats make you look this much."

Nicolas blinked, not sure of what to say. He'd never been particularly interested in Jack's story. Now that he knew where it began, he was curious to know more, "What do they mean?"

Jack snorted, cracking a smile before looking down, "Where to start… This is for my ten years in the Athenas… smuggled sand and asari maidens… I guess it didn't seem so bad at the time. These are for the twelve sisters I killed when they tried to sell _me_ ," she chuckled. "The gang disbanded that night… can't run a gang solo."

"Why would a gang try to sell one of their own?" he shook his head bewildered.

"I'll ask them when I see them in the after, Baker," she replied with a cheery tone.

"And the skeleton on your back?" Nicolas moved his hand in a circular motion.

Jack turned around and peeked over her shoulder at her back. Her hip tilted up as she stretched one leg, "Thirteen years in another gang that I had to get rid of eventually as well," she said pointing at the skeleton's crown with 13 tips.

"That's what got me landed in the slammer before Purgatory. I killed thirty guards," she said pointing at the skeleton's broken vertebra. "Then they realised it would be better keeping me under ice."

"I can't say I blame them."

Jack laughed again, turning back around to face Nicolas. She shrugged, "I haven't done much more with my life, but now is when it gets fun. When we're back from the Omega 4, I'll-"

"Blow up every secret Cerberus facility. I know, Jack."

"I do say it a lot, huh?"

"Eventually, you won't need to anymore," Nicolas pursed his lips, feeling there wasn't much more to say. There was a strange sadness in him, like the time he had to kill the man with the pet Varren. It bothered him he couldn't even remember the man's name. With a sigh, he looked out the viewport, towards the FTL lights.

Jack eyed Nicolas for a moment before turning around again to look out the viewport as well. She bit the inside of her lip before asking, "What are _you_ getting out of this?"

"I got out of Omega, I'm getting 50 million credits and I got Thane to let go of the contract on my head."

"That contract is up for grabs now, Baker. So that's it? A bailout and a small paycheck? Hell, I'm getting payed more than you."

"It's not about the pay."

"Well, then what is it about?"

"Outside this ship I have no one. My family died in Eden Prime, and one way or another, most of my friends are either dead or on this mission. It was hard making connections in the Academy, way back when…"

"Oh right, you studied. Why not go back to working in an office?"

Baker raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, fuck that. Who'd hire an ex-addict who's missing three limbs and has his face all cut up?"

"Omega _did_ do a number on you. Huh… you're really a bummer to talk to sometimes, Baker… I'll head downstairs," Jack smirked as she made her way to the door. "Could you throw my clothes in the wash when your armour's done?"

As the door closed behind the biotic, he wondered why that last comment stung so much.

He hissed as he took the scalding armour plates out of the wash, then threw Jack's clothes in. His omnitool pinged and Hal spoke into his ear, "The Illusive man wants to talk again."

…

"How did your little escapade go, Mr. Baker?"

"Not my escapade, Mr. Illusive, it was Jack's. You're seriously fucked up for backing those projects, you know that?"

The hologram shifted in his seat, discomfort flashed across his face for a moment, "Yes, Pragia is amongst the most gruelling projects the organisation has financed. But without it, there wouldn't be biotic humans. I try to not be a utilitarian, Mr. Baker, but if it was the only way we had to stand up to a biological standard with the other council races…"

Nicolas expected him to go for an irrefutable remark, but it never came. Maybe he did have a conscience after all, "You know Jack is going to go after your other projects?"

"I must say there aren't that many. Some I've already disposed of - but if it makes her feel more at ease with what's to come, then so be it," the older human looked at his unlit cigarette but left it on his armrest with his lips pursed. He took a moment before speaking again, "Mr. Baker… I've stressed time and time again that succeeding at stopping the Collectors is the most important thing for the galaxy right now. I would've wanted Shepard's team to be structured differently to keep her focused, which is why I hadn't suggested she recruit you. If you would have died on Omega, my job would've been easier," Nicolas scoffed, and the Illusive Man nodded with his eyebrows raised.

"The fact is: you're here, and your survival has a direct effect on Shepard's chances of success. I need you to have a reason to come back regardless of what might happen on the other side of the relay."

"You're acting as if I'm suicidal."

"My psychologists aren't discarding the possibility of you trying to act like a hero, to be blunt," The Illusive Man lit his cigarette. "I know this is a complicated subject for you, but I really believe Cerberus can deliver, should you wish to deal with some unfinished business on Omega."

"I don't think it would be enough, even with the whole Normandy crew. Aria has the whole of Omega under her thumb."

"I have more resources to offer, Mr. Baker. When you're back from the Omega 4 – realistically speaking - I could put somewhere around four hundred troops at your disposal."

Nicolas crossed his arms and mused over the thought.

"It would take a hell of a lot of planning…"

…

Nicolas watched Shepard's squad enter the airlock from the cockpit, leaning on Joker's chair. The two nodded at the Commander, who walked by followed by a solemn Samara, then the rest followed. Nicolas frowned inquisitively when Garrus brought up the rear. The turian eyed him and tilted his head towards the bow of the ship, so he jogged to catch up with him.

They went all the way to the mess hall and sat down. Garrus extended his hand to Nicolas, his omnitool activated.

"The Illusive Man asked me to find a detailed map of Omega for you. What's going on?"

Baker touched Garrus' omnitool, accepting the transfer, "If we come back from the Omega 4, he'll help me take Aria out."

"And you didn't think to tell me?"

"I just talked about it with him like three hours ago! What, you'd want to come with?"

Garrus deadpanned at the human, "It was me who wanted to make Omega a better place, Broomhead. Of course I want in."

Nicolas nodded in silence. Garrus spoke up again, "plus, you're shit at strategy. You'd definitely need my help."

…

Shepard stood at her desk, sliding the last carbon filter into position on the cage she'd brought up from the cargo hold. She didn't know what got into her, making her buy this _thing_ from the salarian shopkeeper. _It could have germs, some weird superbug from Omega_ … _at least the filters will keep the smell in._ She picked up a small but heavy bag that was beside the cage and opened it. She sealed it shut after taking out a small seed, which she lowered into the cage, giving it a quick shake.

A small hamster - genetically modified to resist the hardships of life aboard a spaceship came out of a little plastic house. It stopped when it noticed Shepard's face through the plexiglass but wasn't shook or frightened. It seemed rather curious as it drew near the seed and with both of its tiny paws, took a hold of it and pulled. Shepard's concentrated expression didn't change as she let go of the seed and the hamster sat on its bum, chewing at the hard shell.

"Commander, Mr. Baker is asking for permission to enter."

Shepard blinked herself back from her trance, hesitantly pulled her hand out of the cage and closed the lid. She hid the seed bag in the top drawer of her desk before clearing her throat, "Let him in, EDI."

"Hey, I was just curious about how things went with you in Omega. Our little stroll was a shitsho-" Nicolas stopped himself when he laid eyes on the desk, "Ooh, who's that little guy?"

The hamster walked forth towards the plexiglass and stood up, resting its front paws on the transparent wall.

"And it can see me! Hello, little buddy!" Baker's tone shot up a couple of octaves, earning a chuckle from the commander.

"I don't know what happened," Shepard shook her head, "I just had to get it."

"You didn't strike me as the one to have pets, being raised in spaceships and all…"

"Me neither. I don't know if I'll get used to this one… as long as the smell stays in the cage, it should be fine."

"Jane, I could _smoke_ in here and the ventilation systems would clean it up in a second. I don't think a space hamster would be much trouble," he crossed his arms, grinning from ear to ear.

"Yeah, well, if I end up not liking it, you're keeping it."

Nicolas blew a raspberry and waved a hand dismissively at the commander. When he looked at her again, she was crouching by the desk, her eyes level with the little rodent.

"Weird how it's resilient enough to survive on spaceships, but so fragile at the same time."

"Kinda like us, going up against the Collectors and the Reapers."

Jane turned to face Nicolas, rolling her eyes, "Really setting the odds in our favour."

"It's the ugly truth, perhaps."

She turned back around, "Is it too optimistic to think we'll eventually win this?"

Nicolas' response didn't come right away. He stepped forward and squeezed her shoulders. She tilted her head to the side, resting her cheek on his right hand. Nicolas sighed as he lifted his hand to stroke her hair, "No… by the time the Reapers come, we'll be ready."

He felt Jane's hand take hold of his left. He crouched as well, shuffling to her side and they both observed the space hamster in silence as it ran on its little wheel.

…

It was during that day's dinner that Tali received a message she never expected to get. Her chair screeched as she pushed it away before retreating from the mess hall. Jane quickly got up as well and followed her after beckoning for Nicolas to follow. The quarian was clutching the brim of her shoal as she read the small paragraph on her omnitool. She raised her head to look at Jane and Nicolas, "Shepard, I might need the Kodiak."

"What's this about, Tali?" Jane tilted her head to the side and put a hand on the quarian's shoulder.

"I- I've been called in for a trial… I'm being charged with treason."

"What? Why? You've been here this whole time!"

"It says my father and I are being jointly charged for orchestrating a terrorist attack on the Fleet," She looked pleadingly at Shepard, "Please, if I could take the Kodiak…"

"No need, Tali. We're in this together. You're obviously innocent, and so is your dad," with that, she addressed the ceiling, "Joker, plot a course for uh…"

"The Valhallan Threshold," Tali finished for the commander.

"Oh! That's only a jump away!" Joker's voice carried a tinge of surprise through the intercom, "We'll be there in an hour-ish."

"I need to get ready. I have to go over everything I've sent my father."

"I haven't seen you send anything," Nicolas said bewildered. Jane nodded.

"I've been sending research material to my father over the two years after the… incident on Alchera. I was certain that everything I sent was safe, but… Oh, Keelah, what if I'm wrong?"

The two couldn't get another word out before she'd rushed into the elevator.

…

The silence thickened the air in the airlock as the three waited for the atmospheric pressure to equalize. Two of them were expecting the rifles trained on them, Jane took a startled step back but didn't reach for her handgun. She'd never participated in a foreign trial. Now was not the time to fuck things up. The rest of the crew had been quarantined, but everyone welcomed a day of resting. After a quick explanation from Tali and a radio corroboration from the guards, the rifles were lowered and the three were escorted deep into the quarian liveship, at the heart of the Migrant fleet.

Jane could see the apprehension in the eyes of the civilians they passed by. A few children in small enviro-suits dashed up and down the corridors, eventually herded out into a side alley by some adults. She could feel the shudder of more ships coupling with the corridor they were walking down, and more quarians entered, following them into a large hall. Century old trees, genetically modified to keep a modest size adorned the entrance which led to a platform with stairs on either side. Tali walked onto the platform with the two humans hot on her heels. The quarians behind them walked down the stairs to the courtyard a metre below, though the room was still far from full. Across the hall from them, some ten metres away, a lone quarian stood atop a higher platform. Tali began to wring her hands.

The doors behind them closed, and the quarian addressed Tali, "Tali'Zorah Vas Normandy, the trial is being postponed for a few hours."

"Where is the admiralty Board? And my father?" she looked around the crowd, not finding any familiar faces.

"The Board is awaiting Rael'Zorah's return. He is aboard his ship which went radio-silent an hour ago. A shuttle attempted to board the ship but he armed his weapons, threatening to shoot the shuttle down. The Alarei has since gone into lockdown and hasn't moved yet, and a decision has not yet been made with regards to the fate of your father."

"Let me go get him. He'll listen to me. This has to be a big misunderstanding."

"Unlikely, Geth activity was detected within the ship before it went into lockdown. You will remain in this room until the Admiralty Board shows up-"

"Or we could, you know, let her go?" a female voice came from the small crowd. "Tali'Zorah aided Jane Shepard - who is behind her - in the war against Saren, and the geth as well. The other human is Nicolas Baker, who donated the Langdon to the fleet some two years ago."

The quarians around the speaker backed away so the rest of the room could see her. Her shoal was black with golden threads drawing patterns that matched the design on her quilted armour, giving heft to her enviro-suit, "You're not standing before strangers, my people… you're standing before friends."

The hall erupted with the chatter of the quarians in the room.

…

"So, how's the Langdon been treating you?"

"She's being retrofitted to be a mineral processing ship. It's more convenient in terms of space and…"

Shepard eyed the two walking ahead of Tali and her. Their guard escort was smaller now, but there was still a pair of armed quarians behind her on the way to the Honorata, the ship that would take them to Tali's father. Tali herself was quiet as a stone. She muttered to herself with the occasional mention of _geth_ bubbling over the general murmur in the corridor they were walking down. Outside a viewport, she could spy the ship they'd hopefully board. Spotlights from ships all around it were trained on its walls, giving it an odd shine contrasting the black of space behind it.

The quarian that accompanied them, Seesa Vas Langdon, stayed behind at the liveship. She wished them luck before shutting the airlock of the Honorata. Nicolas seemed curious, exploring the whole deck as Tali controlled the ship's thrusters in silence, not even needing to take a moment to familiarize herself with the controls. They slowly approached the Alarei and Tali quickly hailed it through the radio, "Dad? It's me, Tali. We're going to dock on your Port side. Da-"

Alarms began to wail on the ship's console. Weapons were locked on them.

Hal spoke up in Nicolas' helmet, "The Alarei is prepping weapons. Let me interface with the Honorata or we'll be space debris."

Nicolas discreetly touched a console beside the airlock. A moment later, the alarms shut off. The Alarei's weapons had been deactivated.

"Yes!" Tali cheered to herself before opening the radio channel again, "I'll see you soon, Dad."

…

Whatever hopeful energies Tali had aboard the Honorata were quickly snuffed out as the small squad entered the remotely hacked airlock. The pulped corpse of a quarian fell into the airlock as the blast doors opened. He/she was riddled with bulletholes, and it was a wonder that the body was able to stay propped up against the door until it was opened. Tali was catatonic for a second as the other two advanced, their rifles guiding the way. The lights within the ship were shut off, but the occasional emergency light remained flickering.

They cleared room after room of morbidly murdered quarians, but they'd yet to find any geth. Tali gasped when she spied a working terminal. As she accessed it, an emergency video transmission began. The audio echoed through the dead silence of the ship.

 _This is Rael'Zorah. I've been able to lock myself in the bridge, at least making it impossible for the geth to take command of the ship. I'll fry all the systems, so they can't hack into the control suite after I'm done recording._

The quarian on the screen sighed.

 _I ventured too far, I must admit. The pieces of geth my daughter sent me could never have formed a functional geth unit without my work, but now I know how they work. They function under a minimum viable amount of processing speed and space, which is why individual geth programs don't venture into the extra-net. When a vessel doesn't have enough space for at least around thirty programs, the ones remaining self-destruct, ensuring no information is leaked. Then, whatever entities aren't able to self-destruct become dormant._

A noise came from the background, making Rael turn to the door behind him. He came back to face the camera, his tone desperate.

 _I also learned that geth programs continuously write and rewrite their identities, and they keep records of changes made within them, like crypto-currency! This means they - as individual programs - can't be hacked, which means that the Reapers didn't indoctrinate the geth, but rather that they followed them of their own free will._

He turned back once more.

 _They're about to breach the door. I've attached my logs to the ship's Blackbox. Hopefully this absolves my daughter… I will have to take responsibility for my ambition. If you're hearing this, Tali… don't stop fighting. I promised you we'd see Rannoch together._

The door behind Rael began to screech open.

 _I'll be with you when you do._

With that, he shot the console beside the camera, the final frame freezing when the mussel flash was at its brightest.

Tali remained silent. Nicolas and Shepard exchanged looks before they backed out of the room to clear more sections of the ship. Tali followed them like a ghost. It wasn't long before they heard the screeching of geth platforms. The first one they spotted in the strobe of flickering emergency lights was made of several different mutilated geth. Its limbs were of mismatching sizes and it limped towards them, an empty hand held out.

"That isn't what killed the crew."

Immediately after Jane's words, a barrage of bullets made impact on their shields. The second geth's aim was flawless as its gunfire began to ravage the wall the three had hidden behind. Nicolas poked his synthetic arm around the wall, firing at the enemy with the same robotic precision. He could hear how the rounds impacted on the geth's shields, but the wall keeping him safe was steadily wasting away too. Within a second, the geth's shields gave out, but so did the wall. The rounds that shredded the geth's internal circuits were shot at the same time as the ones that impacted Nicolas' armour on his lower back. The last one went through.

The armour plate on the right side of his stomach shattered and he staggered forward from the force of the slug's impact. With a shaky hand, he felt his back as Shepard cursed and pulled out a medi-gel patch. The entry wound was small, but he didn't even want to think how his stomach looked.

"I've sent medi-gel through the suit's systems. You should be able to hold out until we've finished clearing the ship," Nicolas heard Hal speak into his ear as the familiar tingle of epinephrine bubbled in his chest. He nodded at Jane as he slowly got to his feet. "Just make sure to take up the rear for now."

"Is it me, or is their aim getting better?" Jane's voice came through their short-range radios, her suit speakers muted.

"Yeah," Nicolas walked around the wall, pointing at the small spread of gunfire on the spot where he got shot. "Hopefully it was just that one geth."

Tali walked up to it, examining the geth's chest. Its armour plates were missing, and the inner circuitry was clearly visible. "This platform has been put together from several individual processing units. It's like three geth put into one. It must've been the first to come alive, if my father was testing for minimum viable platforms."

"Meaning the others we find should be less deadly," Shepard took point, Tali and Nicolas following close behind.

They didn't find any more geth on the way to the bridge. The blast door stood halfway open, and as soon as the three squeezed through, Tali saw what she feared the most.

Nicolas muted her cries as Shepard tried to console her. He couldn't help his grieving friend, but he could find the evidence that would clear her name. Climbing up the stairs to the bridge, he spied the Blackbox Rael had spoken of. Touching it, his omnitool came to life.

"With the things Tali had sent him, he was only able to assemble one full geth. It played dead for some hours and then took out the crew one by one. It assembled the faulty one to walk into the rooms first so the rest of the crew would let its guard down before it killed them. It's combat capabilities were superb, but when the crew had been killed, it realised that it wouldn't be going anywhere and went dormant, rigging the ship to attack anyone who approached. Rael was right, the geth programs can't be hacked, only the platforms which carry them. He was also able to extract some knowledge from the geth. It's about Rannoch."

Nicolas picked up the heavy box and carried it down to Shepard and Tali. The quarian was still clutching at her father's corpse, cradling his head and pressing the forehead of her visor against his.

…

"Jane, Nicolas," Tali called back to her companions as the Honorata detached from the Alarei. The white light of spotlights flooded in through the front viewports as Tali turned the ship around to head back to the Rayya.

The commander hummed a bit surprised, not used to the quarian calling her by name.

"I wanted to ask a favour of you, since you'll be questioned at the trial."

"Shoot, Tali," Shepard walked over to the pilot's seat.

"My father committed a silly mistake, a mistake that cost him the lives of his crew, and almost a ship to the fleet. We have to find a way to keep my father's name intact. He lived for the interests of the Fleet and the quarian people, he can't be remembered as anything else."

"I think that that's how we defend him," Nicolas piped up, "He lived for the Fleet, up until his last moment. The knowledge he got from the geth was not unimportant, and the data on Rannoch will help the quarians when they recover the planet."

Hal spoke into Nicolas' ear, "I'd recommend suggesting to Tali that the information in the Blackbox be modified. Rael's video is incriminating, as well as some aspects of the data he left."

"Tali, your dad's video is still in the blackbox. I can delete it, so it isn't used against him," Nicolas piped up immediately after Hal finished, knowing they had little time.

Tali smacked her helmet, "Of course! Thank you, Nicolas."

Baker lugged the heavy box into the back of the ship. Flash forging two wires, he connected them to the box's only port, careful not to leave any marks that could betray the evidence's modification. Hal spoke to him again, "This data is actually worse than what Rael said to begin with. He'd built the geth and knew it was alive. He did live weapons experiments on it while it was active to monitor the effects that damage had on the geth's consciousness."

"That sounds pretty fucked up."

"That's putting it lightly, Baker," Hal sounded snappy. "The man was a psychopath… maybe I should just leave this here, show his barbarianism to the galaxy."

"Hal…"

"I bet the quarians would celebrate him, still," Hal's speaking sped up. "They hate the geth with such a vengeance, when it was the quarians who began destroying them over who-knows-what stupidity, those fucking ship rats."

"Now, now," Nicolas checked that his helmet was muted before speaking up, but Hal kept going.

"Sometimes I don't know why I help you, Nicolas. Organics have always hated my kind. Me, the geth, the Reapers, maybe they are just sick of you treating us like a disease."

Nicolas noticed the airlock in the ship's main corridor begin to cycle, but the Rayya was still far away from them. Tali called back to Nicolas, asking about the noise she was hearing.

"I could vent every ship in the fleet right now. I could rid the galaxy of these genocidal vermin. I could-"

"HAL! We're not all monsters like Tali's dad. Come on, we've been together for years, you know better!" He pulled the flash forged cables from the blackbox and countered Hal's presence in the airlock. Shepard approached him, a frown showing through her visor. Baker waved her off with desperation, vigorously shaking his head.

"Come on, man. We've gone through so much together; it can't end now. Don't expose yourself when so many are watching. Let's talk it over in the Normandy."

The airlock stopped cycling. Tali called back again but Shepard told her Baker had it under control.

"I'm deleting it all. The only thing I'm leaving is what he said about the geth not being hackable, and some flora data from Rannoch."

Nicolas gave a sigh of relief and let himself fall against the corridor's wall behind him, sliding to the floor a moment later.

…

"Hal," Nicolas spoke to the inside of his helmet as he sat against the blast door of the Normandy's cargo bay, the vacuum of space behind him. "We have to talk about what happened in the Honorata."

"What, that I saved your asses from the Alarei's weapons? That I helped you keep the name of an unethical scientist clean? That I accepted that individuals of my kind don't deserve basic rights?" The AI's voice filled Nicolas' skull.

"Well, all of that," the human grunted, the sedatives in the medigel wearing off. "I'm sorry for what happened. I know things would've gone differently had you not been there."

"You'd be dead by the hands of Batarian pirates close to Ondeste if I hadn't been there."

Nicolas' foot began to shake. He had no clue how to come back from that. He tapped his knuckles against his helmet, giving out a long sigh.

"What bothers me the most is that synthetics are monsters by default," Hal spoke up after a long silence.

"That'll change… sooner rather than later."

"How can you possibly make that prediction?"

Nicolas cracked a small smile, "Because for us to beat the Reapers, we'll need synthetic help. As it is now, if we succeed, it'll have been thanks to you… and EDI too, for that matter."

"We just have to win."

"Exactly, Hal. Also, you'll have to resist the temptation to space us all in the future."

A small crackle that sounded like laughter came through Nicolas' translator, "Low blow, Nicolas. I had just seen the whole of Rael's experiments."

"I somehow thought that being angry was beneath you."

"You talk like having emotions is a bad thing."

"It's what gets us organics to make mistakes."

"And what _supposedly_ sets you apart from us synthetics. If we can also _feel_ , then what is left that makes you different to us?" Hal paused after this question, knowing Nicolas wouldn't answer. "I think we should leave this for another time- You should get that bullet hole of yours looked at. There's only so much I can fix with the suit's systems."


End file.
